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Book 



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THE 



OBLIGATIONS OF THE WORLD 






BIBLE: 



? A SERIES OF LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN 



BY 



GARDINER SPRING, 



PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE CITlf 
OF NEW YORK 



NEW YORK : 
TAYLOR & DODD, 

LATK JOHN a. TAYLOR, 

CORNER OF PARK ROW AND SPRUCE STREETS. 
1839. 



^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, bv 

Taylor & Dodd, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern 

District of New York, 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 



Just published by Taylor 6l Dodd, Publishers and Booksel. 
lers, Brick Church Chapel : 

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE WORLD TO THE BL 
BLE, By GARDiNEii Spring, D. D. 1 Vol. 8vo. pp. 404. 

T. & D. are also the publishers of the following additional 
works from the pen of Dr. Spring, Pastor of the Brick Presby- 
terian Church, New York City, viz. 

FRAGMENTS FROM THE STUDY OF A PASTOR, 1 

Vol. 12mo. 

HINTS TO PARENTS, ON THE RELIGIOUS EDU- 
CATION OF CHILDREN, 1 Voh 18mo. 

CHRISTIAN CONFIDENCE, ILLUSTRATED IN THE 
DEATH OF THE REV. EDWARD D. GRIFFIN, D. D 

1 Vol. 18ino. 

SKETCH OF JEREMIAH EVARTS. 

Also for sale, SPRING ON NATIVE DEPRAVITY, 1 VoL 

8vo. 



^ ADVERTISEMENTS. 

The following notice of SPRING'S FRAGMENTS is ex- 
tracted from the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser of Nor. 
10th, 1838. 

The first piece entitled the " Church in the Wilderness," is 
one of the most beautiful sketches in our language. It is in 
every respect a finished production — a picture complete in all its 
parts, that for the time captivates the affections, enchains the 
powers of the mind, and fills the soul with the most exalted con- 
ceptions. The Church is represented, under the various cir- 
cumstances of her earthly allotment, leaning on the arm of her 
Beloved, and deriving all her strength from this unfailing source. 
The chastened but glowing fancy, elegance of diction, and purity 
of thought, conspire to give beauty to the image, and make us 
dwell upon it with delight. 

The other pieces in the collection are scarcely of inferior 
merit. " The Inquiring Meeting" portrays with great vividness 
some of the phases which the human heart exhibits, when under 
the influence of religious excitement. The " Letter to a Young 
Clergymen" abounds in instructions of inestimable value. It 
may perhaps, be doubted whether the author attaches sufficient 
importance to pastoral visitation. " The Panorama," is an 
aflTecting delineation of the employment of men as they usually 
appear on the stage of active life. " The Useful Christian" con- 
tains sound practical suggestions for informing the mind, regulat 
ing the heart, and inspiring energy of action. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In venturing to give this work to the public, the 
Author compHes with repeated and earnest solici- 
tations. The subject is of sufficient importance 
to have employed the pen of abler men; nor does 
he doubt that abler thinkers, and students of 
greater research and more leisure will find abun- 
dant cause for animadversion in the following 
pages. They have been prepared amid the un- 
diminished labours of the pulpit during the last 
autumn and winter ; and now that he has com- 
mitted them to the press, more deeply than ever 
does he desire that his time and engagements per- 
mitted him to give them a more carpful revision. 
Though very many of the thoughts here presented 
are not new, he is not aware that the train of 
thought and illustration has ever been presented 



X INTRODUCTION. 

before. So far as this humble and imperfect effort 
may tend to such a result, his earnest desire has 
been to exalt and honour the Holy Scriptures, 
more especially in the estimation of the young. 
With the fervent prayer to their God and their 
father's God, that it may be thus directed, he sub- 
mits it to their attention. 

Brick Church Chapd, New York, June 1839. 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE I. 

The use of Oral and Written Language to be attributed 
to a Supernatural Revelation . • • . • 13 

LECTURE IL 
The Literary merit of the Scriptures. • • • 48 

LECTURE IIL 
The obligations of Legislative Science to the Bible • 67 

LECTURE IV. 
The Bible friendly to CivU Liberty ... 101 

LECTURE V. 

The Scriptures the Foundation of Religious Liberty and 
the Rights of Conscience ..... 120 

LECTURE VL 
The Morality of the Bible 168 

LECTURE VIL 
The Influence of the Bible upon the Social Ingtitutiona. 188 



XU CX)NTENTS. 

LECTURE Vm. 

The Influence of the Bible upon Slavery . , . 21* 

LECTURE rX. 

The Influence of the Bible on the Extent and Certainty of 
Moral Science 252 

LECTURE X. 

The Pre-eminence of the Bible in producing Holiness 
and True Religion ...... 276 

LECTURE XL 

The Pre-eminence of the Bible for the Influences of the 
Holy Spirit 305 

LECTURE Xn. 

The Obligations of the World to the Bible for the Sab 
bath 330 

LECTURE Xm. 

The Influence of the Bible on Human Happiness • 354 

LECTURE Xn\ 
Conclusion ....•••• 330 



THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE WORLD TO 
THE BIBLE. 

LECTURE I. 



THE USE OF ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE TO 
BE ATTRIBUTED TO A SUPERNATURAL REVELA- 
TION. 



" Whoever," says the celebrated Tholuck^ " who- 
ever stands on a lofty mountain, should not look 
merely at the gold which the morning sun pours 
on the grass and showers at his feet ; but he 
should sometimes also look behind him into the 
deep valley where the shadows still rest, that he 
may more sensibly feel that sun is indeed a sun. 
Thus is it also salutary for the disciple of Chri^^t, 
at times, from tlie kingdom of light to cast forth 
a glance over the dark stage where men play their 
part in lonely gloom, witiiout a Saviour, without 
a God !" The incjuiry has no doubt oft(»n occurred 
to every reflecting mind. What had the condi- 
2 



14 ORAL A^D WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

tion of the world now been, had no supernatu- 
ral revelation ever been imparted to men ? The 
design of these Lectures, my young friends, is to 
call your attention to the Bible, and to exalt and 
honour, in your estimation and my own, this Great 
Book. The most fearful blow that can be direct- 
ed against the best interests of men, is aimed by un- 
belief ^ and owes its succes not unfrequently to an 
imperfect knowledge of the Bible, as well as neg- 
lect of its sacred precepts. Can then a higher 
service be performed for the 3^outh of our metrop- 
olis than to vindicate its claims, assert its superi- 
ority, and challenge for it the scrutiny of the in- 
credulous, and the admiration of every devout 
mind ? 

We look for greatness in all the works of God. 
We gaze upon the exterior universe, and ex- 
claim with the Psalmist, " Marvellous are thy 
works. Lord God Almighty 5 in wisdom hast thou 
made them all I" We expect a supernatural rev- 
elation to exhibit its Divine author in the same 
illustrious and splendid character in which he 
appears in the works of creation and providence. 
JVor are such expectations disappointed or deceiv- 
ed. Infinite intelligence belongs to the Deity. 
We see it in his works, and we see it in his word. 
At the first glance, we can scarcely fail to per- 
ceive that the God of creation and providence is 
the God of the Bible, and that the system of 
truth revealed in the Scriptures must have ori- 
ginated with the same being who created and gov- 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 15 

erns the world.* When, however, we examine the 
Bible carefully and minutely; when we explore 
the treasures of its pages, and seem for the mo- 
ment to grasp the full measure of its wonders and 
its knowledge ; how is our admiration heightened ! 
The words of the apostle break almost instinctive- 
ly from our lips; the expression of his feelings be- 
comes the best expression of our own, — " O the 
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God !" 

It was the remark of a sensible and thinking 
layman, many years ago made to the writer, that 
" it sometimes seemed to him that the Bible is as 
much greater than all other books, as its author 
is greater than all other authors." I am well 
persuaded that the seeming extravagance of such 
an observation will diminish with our increasing: 
acquaintance with this wonderful volume. Tin- 
dal^ a deistical writer in the early part of the 
seventeenth century, in his work entitled, " Christi- 
anity as old as the Creation" labours to show that 
it was impossible for God to teach men what 
they did not know before, and that the perfection 
of the human mind is such that it adnn'ts of no 
addition from a supernatural revelation. I cannot 
but hope that the presumption and prepostcrous- 



* The spirit of tin's remark is largely illustrated in that in- 
comparahle work, The Analogy of religion, naiural and reveal, 
edj to the constitution and course of nature, by Joscpli Sut- 
ler, L. L. D. 



16 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

ness of this remark will appear in the following 
pages. It is not surprising that a deist should 
depreciate a supernatural revelation. But it is 
matter of surprise that, as Christians, we should 
not appreciate it more highly. There is no book 
in any country, in any language, in any age, that 
can be compared with this. From one page of 
this wonderful volume, more may be acquired, 
than reason or philosophy could acquire by the pa- 
tience and toil of centuries. The Bible expands 
the mind, exalts the faculties, developes the pow- 
ers of the will and of feeling, furnishes a more 
just estimate of the true dignity of man, and 
opens more sources of intellectual and spiritual en- 
joyment than any other book. Science and litera- 
ture have taken deep root in this consecrated soiL 
No book furnishes so many important hints to the 
human mind 5 gives so many clues to intellectual 
discovery, and has so many charms in so many 
departments of human inquiry. In whatever 
paths of science, or walks of human knowledge 
we tread, there is scarcely a science, or pursuit of 
permanent advantage to mankind, w^hich may not 
either trace its origin to the Bible, or to which 
the Bible will not be found to be a powerful aux- 
iliary. 

Whether we consider its influence upon an oral 
and written language — upon history and literature 
— upon laws and government — upon civil and re- 
ligious liberty — upon the social institutions — upon 
moral science and the moral virtues — upon the 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 17 

holiness which fits men for heaven, and the pecu- 
har spirit and exalted character which prepares 
them to act well their part on the earth — upon 
the happiness they enjoy in the present world — or 
upon the agency and power by which these desir- 
able results are secured ; we shall be at no loss to 
see that the world in which we live is under ever- 
lasting obligations to a supernatural revelation. 
In this enumeration of topics, you have the gene- 
ral outline of the following lectures. 

The present opportunity will be devoted to the 
thought, that the use of oral and written language 
is to be attributed to a supernatural revelation. 
The art most necessary for man, even from the 
commencement of his existence, must have been 
language. If not an indispensable instrument 
of thought, yet without it, his mind must of ne- 
cessity be confined within a very narrow and 
limited range. His most immediate wants, the 
play of various passions, and perhaps an imperfect 
and incoherent narrative might be indicated l)y 
signs and the expression of his features. Comnui 
nications less apparent than these — those shades 
of emotion, those fainter recollections, and above 
all, those more intricate combinations of thoii^bt 
arising from the experience of others, as compared 
witli, and confirming, modifyins:^ or refuting his 
own, — lh(^s(^ nnist bo (bbarred him until he is in 
possession of an oral language. 

And how could man <^vcr hav(^ invent«'d articu- 
late speech ? Universal observation shows that cbil- 
2* 



% 



18 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

dren learn to speak by imitation ; and '' where the 
opportunities of imitation are wanting, the use of 
articulate speech is unknown." If I mistake not, 
it is a fact well ascertained that not an instance is 
found of the use of articulate sounds as the signs 
of thought, unless taught immediately by God, or 
gradually by those who had themselves been in- 
structed. We see not hovr it is possible for lan- 
guage to have been of human invention. Its 
structure is too complicated and artificial. It 
must have required the previous use of language 
to have constructed the most simple lanofuaofe of 
the most uninstructed tribes. And whence is it, 
if language were of human invention, that the old 
est languages are more complete in their structure 
than those languages that have been more recently 
formed 5 and why, as we mark the progress of im- 
provement, are vre not carried back to some early 
and rude state of this invention ^ 

The use of language is so necessary to the con- 
venience and comfort of man, and the difficulty of 
forming it so obvious, that it is not unreasonable 
to suppose it would be immediately conferred up- 
on him by the x4uthor of his existence. He had 
a body " curiously and wonderfully made,"' and 
a mind so capacious, strong, and penetrating, as 
to have been, before his apostacy, the greatest, as 
well as the best of men : and yet, must this " no 
blest work of God" have been, very imperfect 
without speech. Xor is it easy to see how his at- 
tainments could have been so surprisingly great 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 19 

and rapid, or how his intellectual endowments 
could have been so successfully cultivated as we 
know they were, if he had been originally ignorant 
of all language. 

But while the nature of the case might con- 
vince us that language is of divine origin, when 
we look into the Mosaic history, that convic- 
tion must be confirmed. There we learn that 
the laics given to our first parents were given 
through the medium of language. They obvious- 
ly conversed with God and with one another. 
Nor have we any intimation that this intercourse 
was conducted in any other way than by an oral 
language. The early worship of our first parents 
could not have been purely mental and meditative ; 
but oral, and in the noblest language ever uttered 
by man. We learn too, that our progenitor 
very early gave names to all the animal creation. 
It was by the channel of an oral language also, 
that the Tempter infused the first taint of sin into 
the bosom of man, breathing his poison with his 
words. It seems indeed to be more generally 
conceded, that the first use of oral language is to 
be attributed to a supernatural revelation. There 
are exceptions to this opinion, but it is very dif- 
ficult to give any other tolerable account of the 
ori;rin of this art.'^ 



♦Tins; t()>)ic is discussed at length by Herder ot\ tlio orif^in of 
laiirriia^M; ; l)y Suvlford in his connexions ; by CondUiuc on the 
origin of Iluuuin knowledge; by Smith in his Thcorv df Moral 



20 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

The researches of the most accredited philolo- 
gists go far to support this opinion. The more 
critically modern, as well as ancient languages 
are investigated, tlie more are they found to re- 
semble each other in their roots and primary 
forms, and the more clearly are referable to one 
common stock. The languages which prevailed 
in all the South of Europe after the destruction 
of the Roman Empire, were a barbarous mixture 
of the Latin with the different languages of the 
Northern invaders. The modern languages of 
Europe have all evidently been derived from the 
Roman ; the Roman from the Greek, and the 
Greek from the Phoenician. Gogiiet^ in his Ori 
gin of laws^ arts and sciences^ remarks that 
" the comparison of the Phoenician and Greek Al- 
phabet w ould alone be sufficient to convince us of 
this. It is visible that the Greek characters are 
only the Phoenician letters turned from right to 
left." Authorities might be greatly multiplied to 
show that the Phoenicians spoke a dialect of the 
Hebrew, The Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan 
are also dialects of the Hebrew, without any con- 
siderable deviation, or m.any additional words. 



Sentiment ; by Magee in a valuable note to his work on Atone- 
ment and Sacrifice ; by the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, article Lan- 
guage ; by Dr. Samuel S. Smith ; by Stilingfeet, in his Orignse 
Sacroe ; in the Boylean Lectures ; in Beaitie's Theory of Lan 
guage ; in the Scholar Armed ; in Woolaston's Religion of Na- 
ture, and in Winder^s History of Knowledge, 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 21 

There is a striking similarity also between the 
Ethiopic and the Hebrew ; the Hebrew and the 
Arabic, and the Arabic and the Persic. There 
are strong analogies between the Sanscrit and the 
Hebrew, and between the Hebrew and the Cop- 
tic 5 while the Coptic is identified with the ancient 
Egyptian. Dr. Lightfoot^ whom Adam Clarke 
pronounces to have been the first scholar in Eu- 
rope, is of the opinion that the original tongue 
was Hebrew ; that this was the language spoken 
in Canaan before the time of Joshua 5 that it was 
the lanorua<Te of Adam and the lan^juaoje of God. 

00 DO 

" God" says he, " was the first founder of it, and 
Adam was the first speaker of it. It began with 
the world and the Church, and increased in glory 
till the captivity in Babylon. The whole language 
is contained in the Bible, and no other book con- 
tains in it an entire lano^uaoje."* 

The German scholars of the present century 
would present much the same account, while they 
seem to hesitate in expressing the opinion that the 
Hebrew is the mother tongue. We learn from 
them that the modern languages of Europe, to- 
gether with the Gothic, Sclavonic, Grec^k and 
Latin are discovered to bear a close afiiuity ; and 
under the nauie of Indo-European^ arc classed 
with them in one fiimily. Between these and the 
Semitic family, which, among others, includes tiic 



• Liglitfoot*a Works. 



22 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac Samaritan, Ethiopic 
and Arabic, striking analogies are discovered, and 
by every new research they are becoming more 
fully identified. Wiseman^ a learned Romanist, 
says, that the decision of the academy of St. 
Petersburgh upon the celebrated paper of count 
Goulianoif was, that all languages are to be con- 
sidered as dialects of one now lost. I am at a 
loss to understand the ground of this uncertainty. 
The Chaldee and Syriac were formerly one lan- 
guage, only they were written with a different 
character 5 and they were both dialects of the 
Hebrew. The hypothesis, for it is an hypothesis 
merely, that the book of Job is older than the 
Pentateuch and was written in Arabic, seems in- 
deed to countervail the position that the Hebrew 
is the first written language. And yet Lightfoot 
unhesitatingly affirms that the Arabic is a dialect 
of the Hebrew, and that " all languages are indebt- 
ed to this, and this to none." This much how- 
ever may be confided in, that both believers and 
unbelievers in the Mosaic history have affirmed 
the original unity of all language ; disclaiming 
the notion that men are of entirely distinct races, 
and thus far corroborating the position that the 
same divine source of the physical organs of 
speech imparted^to man the knowledge of their 
use and power. 

The first method of rendering thought visible 
was by pictures, symbols, and the various kinds of 
ideagraphic writing. But there is a marked dis- 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 23 

tinction between these imperfect, and elementary 
forms and Alphabetical writing. This is a sys- 
tem which is expressive primarily of sound rather 
than of thought. Instead of employing characters 
as multifarious as the different objects to be point- 
out, it makes visible by the combination of a few 
elements of sound, every idea which the mind is 
capable of conceiving. 

From our familiarity with this art, it is not easy 
for us to appreciate its importance. The extreme 
simplicity by which results so complicated are at- 
tained, bears a strong analogy, not to the works of 
man's invention, but to the operations of the God 
of nature, distinguished as they are, not less by 
the fewness and simplicity of their agents, than 
their astonishing, nay unlimited combinations. 
Were we now in possession only of such a mode 
of writing as distinguished the ancient Egyptians, 
or the Mexicans upon the discovery of this conti- 
nent, and as distinguishes the Chinese at the pre- 
sent day; and should some gigantic mind penctr«ite 
the mysteries of sound, embody them and give 
them form, and present to us our pimple Al- 
phabet, the first l(;sson of our childhood, and ex- 
plain to us its combinations and its uses ; what 
honours, I had almost said, what veneration should 
we withhold from him ! 

The claims of most nations to this sinjxular dis- 
covery aris(j solely from their supposed antiquity. 
And yot is it a somewhat r(Mnarkable fact, that 
fcjome of the most ancient nations remained desti- 



24 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

tute of this art long after it had prevailed in ad- 
jacent countries.'^" Dr. Mc Knight remarks that 
"the literal method of \yriting, is generally said 
to have been first practised by the Phoenicians 5" 
though he himself comitenances the idea that 
the first specimen of the art was that on the 
tables given to Moses. But, it may be shown 
with the utmost degree of probability that the 
Phoenician Alphabet vras derived from the He- 
brev/. A learned writer in the Edinbm'gh En- 
cyclopaedia expresses the opinion, " that the pre- 
tensions of the Fhcenicians must give way to the 
better established claim of the Hebrews." Go- 
guet thinks it more probable that this invention 
is to be ascribed either to the Assyrians, or the 
Egyptians. It is true that the Assyrians were a 
more ancient people than the Hebrew^s 5 but, 
their antiquity extended beyond the period when 
letters v/cre invented. On the mere ground of 
antiquity, they have a higher claim than any 
other nation. But I have found no evidence in 



* The leading authors to which I have had access on this gene- 
ral subject are Winder's History of Knowledge — Goguefs Origin 
of Laws — Diigald Stewart's Dissertation prefixed to the Encyclo- 
paedia Brittanica — the Edinburgh Review for 1838, — the works 
of Lighffoot — Astle on the origin and progress of writing — War- 
hurtori's Divine Legation of Moses — Gilbert Wakefield's Disser- 
tation on Alphabetical writing — Daubuz on the Revelation — and 
also some valuable thoughts at the close of the last volume of 
Dr. Mc Knight on the Apostolic Epistles. 



ORAL AND WRITTEX LANGUAGE. 25 

in favour of their claims except this. On the con- 
trary, the best authorities dispute their pretensions. 
With regard to Egypt, more may be said in in- 
validating its claims to this invention than has been 
said against those of Phoenicia and Assyria. Is 
there not a sort of literary mania which has led 
so many renowned men to ascribe almost all that 
is valuable in literature, science, or the arts to 
Egypt ? Though comparatively a very incompe- 
tent judge of matters of this sort, I have never 
been so convinced as some have been of the supe- 
riority of this degraded and pagan empire. Egypt 
" owed her splendour to strangers, rather than to 
her own vigorous and nourished intellect." Scy- 
thia rivalled her in arms. Tyre in commerce, Syria 
in letters, Chaldea in astronomy, and Babylon in 
every department of natural science. Dr. Delaney 
in his Life of David, expresses the opinion that 
the great models of Grecian architecture, are not, 
as has more generally been supposed, to be traced 
to Egypt, but to that most perfect of all models, 
the Temple at Jerusalem, the entire plan of which 
was given to David by God himself. The hiero- 
glyphics of the ancient Egyptians were never 
brought to such a state of perfection as to consti- 
tute a system of phonetic writing. They remain 
to the [)resent day ; and they are almost useless 
and silent, because they represent none of the ele- 
ments of articulation, and bear no analogy to any 
other system, whether ancient or mo(l(Tu. What- 
ever may have been their learning of other kinds^ 
3 



26 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGtJAGE. 

the Egyptians never possessed Alphabetical writ- 
ing 5 they were " contented with their hieroglyphi- 
cal method and never, of themselves, advanced be- 
yond it." The same may be remarked of the 
Chinese even at the present day. It is a point 
well established that the elements of their writing, 
or Ixeys as they are termed, are merely symbolical, 
and could never have given rise to any one of the 
Oriental alphabets. It is " purely an artificial 
structure which denotes every idea by its appro- 
priate sign without any relation to the utterance. 
It speaks to the eye hke the numerical cyphers of 
the Europeans, which every one understands and 
utters in his own way." Modern authors seem 
generally to agree in tracing the pervading igno- 
rance of this people to this fact. Neither can the 
claims of the Hindoos be defended on any better 
grounds than those of the nations already named- 
Sir William Jones has clearly made it appear that 
the Hindoo pretensions to antiquity are excessively 
extravagant, if not altogether fabulous. Events 
which they used to fix at a date of some million 
or two years back, actually took place in the tenth, 
or eleventh century of the Christian era. Their fa- 
mous astronomical tables, by which it has been 
imagined that great antiquity might be assigned to 
this nation, are shown to be incorrect, and to have 
been calculated backwards. It has been satisfac- 
torily proved that the Treatise which they con- 
sider the most ancient in the world, must have 
been compiled since the Christian era. 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 27 

Though no man is warranted in speaking with 
confidence on this subject, yet is there not some 
good reason to beheve that the earliest specimens 
of a written language came from the Hebrews? 
Is there not presumptive evidence of this, in the 
mere fact that the first oral lanojua^^e was the He- 
brew ? If the Hebrew language was the lan- 
guage originally imparted to men 5 if it was pre- 
served through all the corruptions of the antedilu- 
vian world, through the division of the family of 
Noah in the time of Peleg, and through the sub- 
sequent confusion of tongues 5 if it was the Ian 
guage in which God spoke to Abraham and to 
Moses, and in which Moses conveyed the revela- 
tion of the divine will to mankind 5 is there not 
some strong presumption in favour of the idea that 
it was the first written language ? 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the infidels of Ger- 
many, who have endeavoured to show that alpha- 
betical writing was not in use at all even so early as 
the time of Moses, it will not be denied except by 
infidels of the boldest class, that the Hebrew char- 
acters existed in a perfect state when this inspired 
author wrote the Pentateuch. Dr. Winder, in his 
History of knowledge, maintains the position, that 
the art of alphabetical writing was communicalvul 
to Moses when the Great Ijawgiver gare him 
the law upon mount SinaL The considerations 
which su[)port this hypothesis, to say the least, 
anuumt to strong presumj)ti()n in its favour. A\ ith 
two exceptions writing is not even apparent I tf 



28 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE- 

mentioned in the Scriptures before the giving of 
the law, and these as we shall presently show, may 
not invalidate the hypothesis of which we are 
speaking. There was no such thing as writing 
known before the flood, nor is there any mention 
made of it in the book of Genesis before that 
period. Nor was it known from the time of the flood 
to the time of Abraham's leaving Chaldea. Nor 
was it known in Canaan at the death of Sarah, 
and when Abraham bought the cave of Ephron 
of the sons of Heth. Goguet remarks, that " all 
deeds among the Hebrews at that time were 
verbal^ and were authenticated and ascertained by 
being made in presence of all the people.'^ Nor 
was it know^n at the time of Isaac's marriage. 
Nor was it known either in Phcenicia, or Canaan, 
at the time of Isaac's league with Gerar. Nor 
was it known either in Canaan or Syria, when 
Jacob went to Laban. Nor was it known in the 
family of Jacob, while Joseph was in Egypt, either 
during his servitude, or preferment. Nor was it 
known at the new settlement of the lands after 
the famine; nor when the Hebrews settled m 
Goshen ; nor when their oppression began, and 
the sanguinary edicts were published.* Though 
these were periods and transactions, during which 
had alphabetical letters existed, they would not 
only have been of the greatest utility, but as it 



' See these positions illustrated and defended in Winder, 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 29 

seems to us indispensable, and could scarcely fail 
of being mentioned 5 yet are they not only not 
mentioned, but all these important transactions, 
and all the correspondence between the parties, 
as well as all the communications from Heaven, 
were effected by verbal intercourse. 

And yet there is 2i precise period beyond which 
they are mentioned, and mentioned on almost 
every fit occasion, and introduced into all the na- 
tional and ecclesiastical affairs of the Jewish people. 
That period is the inscription of the law on 
Mount Sinai by the hand of God, on the two 
tables of stone. 

After this period, Moses is commanded to icrite 
the laws in a book ; to write the narrative of the 
war with the Amalekites ; to write a copy of the 
law for future kings ; to record the laws that they 
might be read 5 and to place a cojyy of them in 
the ark of the covenant. After this period also, 
and not before, as a close examination of the 
whole passage most clearly shows, we read of the 
engraving of the names of the twelve tribes en 
the breast plate of judgment, and of the engra- 
ving on the mitre of Aaron of the memorable 
label, iiolim:ss to the lord. 

The giving of the tables^ it will be noticed was 
a dili'erent thing from the icriting of the tal)les. 
The disregard of this very plain distinction has 
led to the supposition, that the charge given to 
Mosrs which rclat(\s to the e|)hod and breast |)lato 
for the High Priest, on which inscri|)tions were to 



30 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

be made like the engravings of a signet was given 
before the law was written. The law was not 
given to Moses until just as he was about to leave 
the mount, at the close of the forty days. But it 
was written more than a month before 5 and not 
until after it was written, did Moses receive the 
instruction to prepare the ephod and the breast- 
plate of Aaron. Signets are mentioned before 
the writing of the law, but there is no evidence 
that they were not purely hieroglyphic. God now 
required Moses to engrave on the mitre of Aaron 
letters^ as distinctly as had heretofore been the 
hieroglyphic representations of a signet. 

Now, whence is this perfect silence on the sub- 
ject of alphabetical writing, until after the super- 
natural writing of the law, and whence the fre- 
quent notices of the art afterwards ? Is not the 
only answer to this question found in the fact, that 
the origin of the art is to be attributed to God 
himself, and that he was the original instructor of 
Moses during the forty days in which he was upon 
the Mount ? 

It would be natural to suppose, if a written lan- 
guage were thus discovered to men, that there 
would be some intimations of this fact in the 
Mosaic history. Are there not intimations of it ? 
Let us advert a few moments to the narrative of 
this transaction as it is recorded in the book of 
Exodus. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come 
up to me in the Mount and be there 5 and I will 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 31 

give thee tables of stone, and a law and com- 
mandments, which I have written." The tables 
here spoken of, it is obvious were already pre- 
pared and finished at some previous time, God 
affirms that he had written them. Subsequently 
to this, we are told that "God gave unto Moses, 
when he had made an end of communing with 
him on Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, 
tables of stone, written with the finger of God." 
Just after this, the fact is repeated, " and the 
tables were the work of God, and the writing 
was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." 
It is a question which deserves to be impartially 
considered, whether God does not here affirm that 
he himself is the author of this invention. When 
a work is declared in the Scriptures to be the 
work of God^ to have been wrought by the finger 
of God^ the idea conveyed is that it is the pecu- 
liar work of God, and altogether above the power 
of man. When it is said that Israel is the sheep 
of God'^s hand^ the meaning is that they belong to 
God and to no other. When the Saviour says 
that he cast out devils by the finger of God^ 
we understand him as declaring that he performs 
a work to which no other power is adequate but 
the power of God. When the magicians of lOgypt 
exclaimed of the miracles of Moses, this is the 
finger of God^ they acknowledged his divine mis- 
sion. And so the Psalmist, when he says, " when 
I consider the heavens, the work of thy fmgcM's," 
expresses the idea that, no other could create the 



S:C ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

heavens but God. On the same principle idols 
are the invention of men, and are called the icorh 
of meiPs hands^ and which their oicn fingers have 
made. Is it not then a fair exegetical inference, 
that, \yhen the law is declared to have been writ- 
ten by the finger of God^ the legitimate import 
of the phrase is, that it was so peculiarly his work 
that the original invention is due to him. 

I remarked that with two exceptions writing is 
not even apparently mentioned in the Scriptures 
before the giving of the Law. One of these occurs 
just before the giving of the Law, and refers to 
a future rehearsal in the ears of Joshua of what 
Moses should subsequently commit to writing for 
the instruction and encouragement of his successor ; 
and by no means proves that the art of writing 
w^as known to Moses before the time when the 
Law was written. Especially is this remark de- 
serving of consideration, when it is recollected 
that it is no uncommon thing for the Scriptures 
to notice future events by this sort of anticipation. 
The other apparent exception will be found no ex- 
ception at all. It is recorded in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Exodus. " And Moses wrote all the 
W'Ords of the Lord : — and he took the book of 
the covenant and read in the audience of the 
people." It is said, that as God did not call Moses 
up into the Mount and give him the written tables 
until after this period, Moses must have had the 
art of writing before the tables were written. But 
the question is, when were the tables written ? 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 33 

Moses had been up to the Mount with God be- 
fore the period here referred to. His first ascent 
is noticed as far back as the nineteenth chapter. 
He had ascended a second time, as related in the 
same chapter. And as is related in the latter part 
of the same chapter, he had ascended a third time. 
Not until he came down after the fourth ascent, 
is he represented as writing the civil and judicial 
statutes and reading them to the people. Now 
had not God prepared the two tables of the moral 
Law before Moses wrote and read to the people 
their judicial code ? He had not committed them 
to Moses till after this, but when he did commit 
them, it was a commitment of tables, as we have 
already seen previously prepared ^ how long be- 
fore no man can tell. But it cannot be shown 
that it was after Moses wrote and read the judicial 
statutes. 

It is also objected to this position, that Joh 
must have lived previous to the time of Moses, and 
that as he distinctly refers to ancient writing by 
books and sculpture, there must have been a writ- 
ten language before the giving of the Law. When 
it shall bo made to appear tliat the book of Job 
was written at an earlier period than the time of 
Moses, it will be time enough to give weight to 
this objection. The age in which Job hved, and 
in wliich the book of Job was written is unknown. 
If the most distinguished critics may be relied up- 
on, tills book was posterior to the time* of iNIoses, 
or Moses himself was its author. Dr. Warburton 



34 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

judges it to have been written about the close of 
the Babylonish captivity. Dr. John Mason Good, 
Dr. Winder and J)i\ Grey, with great strength of 
argument, attribute it to 3Ioses. Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, Spanheim, and Adam Clarke attribute it 
to Solomon. Several distinguished writers have 
supposed that the silence of the author of this book 
respecting the destruction of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah, the Exodus from Egypt, the passage of the 
Red Sea, and the promulgation of the Law, prove 
that it was written prior to these events, and during 
the age of the early patriarchs. But is it to be 
supposed that every book in the sacred canon 
which does not refer to these events, was written 
prior to these events themselves ? Two things 
are indispensable to the conclusiveness of this ar- 
gument, neither of which is known. The first is, 
that upon the supposition, that the author of the 
book of Job, or Job himself had lived subsequently 
to these events, he was acquainted with them; the 
second is, that upon the supposition that he was 
acquainted with them, they must necessarily, or 
even probably have been noticed in this Book. 
Nor does the longevity of Job necessarily place 
him in an age previous to the giving of the Law. 
That he did not live in so early an age as that of 
the longeval patriarchs is evident from two con- 
siderations; in the first place, the reference of 
Bildad to the longevity of that age, as a peculiari- 
ty that distinguished it from his own, as appears 
from the 8th and 9th verses of the Sth Chapter 5 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 35 

and in the second place, there is no evidence that 
the age of Job himself was such as to justify the 
remark, that he '' was old and full of days," unless 
he lived long after the early patriarchs. The 
writer of the passage, "man that is born of a wo- 
man is o^ few days, and full of trouble 5 he Com- 
eth forth like a flower, and is cut down 5 he flceth 
also as a shadow, and continueth not 5" cannot well 
be supposed to have lived at a period when the 
life of man was prolonged from six hundred to a 
thousand years. The reference to the flood as a 
very ancient event is inconsistent with the suppo- 
sition that Job lived anywhere near the period of 
those who walked in the " old way" and were " cut 
down out of time." The reference to the law of 
land-marks and pledges rather indicates also 
that the hero of this book lived after the time of 
Moses. 

It has also been said that there is ground for a 
presumption that the art of writing was known be- 
fore the time of Moses, in the fact that there were 
officers called Shoterim among the Israelites 5 and 
that this word primarily and properly means v. Ti- 
ters. The passage referred to, is Exodus the fiith 
cha[)ter and sixth verse. " And Pharaoh com- 
manded the same day the task-masters and the 
officers, saying, ye shall no more give the pcoj)le 
straw to make brick." Our translators translate 
the ll(ibrevv word officers^ and most certainly the 
scope and sense of the passage would be violated 
by translating it writers. Adam Clarke says that 



30 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

the sJioterim " were an inferior sort of officers, 
who attended on superior officers or magistrates 
to execute their orders." So say Patrick and 
Rosenmuller, who give at length the reasons for 
this opinion. And Mr. Poole gives the same 
translation, affirming, with Rosenmuller, that the 
secondary meaning of the word is scribes. 

It appears therefore in a high degree probable 
that the art of writing was imparted to Moses at 
the giving of the law. The hypothesis is certain- 
ly attended with fewer difficulties than any other 
which I have met with. The two tables we are 
informed were written by the finger of God ^ and 
after these were broken, they were rewritten by 
the same unerring hand. And what additional, 
what overwhelming evidence would it offer to the 
Jewish people of the divine origin of the moral 
law, when these tables were presented to them, 
inscribed with mysterious and living characters ! If 
Moses himself was unacquainted with the art of 
writing before he ascended the mount, the possi- 
bility of collusion or deceit was precluded, and 
the most stubborn minds must have yielded im- 
plicit confidence in the divine legation of their 
lawgiver. We find that notwithstanding the 
solemnity of that memorable scene, a portion of 
the people gave themselves up to idolatry, even 
while Moses was yet communing with God upon 
the mount. After his descent with the two tables 
in his hands, as the final witness and seal of his 
errand, for a long time v^^e hear no more of doubts. 



1 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE, 37 

no more following after idols ; and is it unreason- 
able to suppose that the obstinancy of an incredu- 
lous people was at last vanquished by the two tables 
of testimony ? If you ask, why there were no de- 
monstrations of surprise on the part of the Jew- 
ish lawgiver upon the revelation of this art, or on 
the part of the people at its introduction among 
them 5 I reply, there may have been, though they 
are not recorded. And even if there were not, we 
need not wonder at this, when we recollect that 
Moses was with God forty days in the mount, 
and especially when we reflect upon the prodigies 
which nature every where displayed around the 
people, when Sinai sent up its flame and smoke, 
and the voice of the ever-living God was heard 
amid the thunders of the mount. 

And is it not somewhat remarkable, that, if of 
human origin, the author of so wonderful a discov- 
ery as that of alphabetical writing, should be so 
utterly lost in the remote ages of antiquity, that 
no man can specify the nation, or even the era to 
which it can be attributed ? There is something 
quite as ludicrous to my mind, in the theories of 
the gradual construction of alphabetical letters, as 
there is in the systems of Pagan cosmogony. Is it 
reasonable to suppose for example, that the old 
Shemitish letter D was suggested by the word doory 
or the old Shemitish letter II by tlie word fence ^ and 
the Shemitish V by a liook or nail ? And yet this 
system has very learned advocates. May we not 
gravely inquire whether the invention of letters does 
4 



38 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

not exceed the powers of man ? The learned Shuck- 
ford, though an advocate for the early invention of 
the art, says, " that men should immediately fall on 
such a project, to express sounds by letters, and 
expose to sight all that may be said, or thought, in 
about twenty characters variously placed, exceeds 
the highest notion we can have of the capacities 
with which we are endowed." It is truly a won- 
derful art. And it was perfect from the beginning ; 
nor has there been any improvement from the 
days of Moses to the present day. With one ex- 
ception all the Hebrew letters are found in the 
decalogue. Every guttural, labial, lingual, and 
dental sound is here disclosed. 

Nor is it less worthy of note, that not an in 
stance is known in which any man, or set of men, 
ever invented the use of letters by their own un- 
aided powers. 

I am not disposed therefore to receive the opin- 
ion that the origin of letters is lost in time 5 or that 
the art rose from small beginnings, and was gradu- 
ally improved as the wants of men demanded it ; 
but that it was revealed to men by God himself. 
Nor is this at all a novel conclusion. Among the 
Christian fathers, Clemens Alexandrinus, Cyril and 
St. Augustin ; and among the moderns, Mariana, a 
learned Romanist, Dr. John Owen, Sir Charles 
Woollesly, Drs. Winder, McKnight, and others, 
held the opinion that Moses introduced the first 
Alphabet.* 

* Vide Winder. 



ORAL A\D WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 39 

In relation to the period when the art of writing 
was communicated to other nations, as might be 
well supposed, different views have been expressed 
by different men. It is obvious that the Hebrews 
had no opportunity of communicating with other 
nations either during their forty years in the 
Desert, or the time of Joshua's conquests or go- 
vernment. The period between the death of 
Joshua and the government of Samuel, as charac- 
terized by the reign of the Judges, was marked by 
great corruption and degeneracy. Milman, in his 
history of the Jews, well describes it as " the heroic 
age of Jewish history, abounding in wild adven- 
ture and desperate feats of individual valour." 
During this rude and unsettled period, a period 
of above four hundred years, they were scarcely 
fitted to receive, or extend instruction of any kind. 
Under the government of Samuel, the literature 
of the nation may be said to have taken its rise. 
lie founded a school of the Prophets ; he was the 
author of the earlier part of the life of David ; 
and he wrote a treatise on civil government, which 
was called " the manner of the kingdom," for the 
instruction of Saul, the first king. David was 
a Prince of highly cultivated mind, and greatly 
<;levatcd the nation in arts and in arms. It was 
not, however, until the distinguished reign of Solo- 
man, that the Hebrew state attracted the atten- 
tion of the surrounding nations, and bocanu* asr 
n^rnarkable for i(s wisdom, as for its wealth and 
splendour. 'J'he r(Mgn of this Prince was the 



40 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 



1 



zenith of Israel's glory. It was to the Hebrew 
nation, what the present century has been to Ger- 
many 5 what the reign of Anne was to Britain ; 
the reign of Louis XIV. to France ; the Pontifi- 
cate of Leo X. to Italy 5 the reign of Augustus 
Csesar to Rome ; and the influence of Pericles to 
Greece. Solomon's court was the most splendid 
and enlightened court in the world. The whole 
country of Palestine was then classic ground. It 
was a time of profound peace 5 and the people 
were no longer the sport of the sword and the 
pestilence. Agriculture and commerce, lucrative 
occupation of every kind, and unobstructed inter- 
national intercourse had rendered their land and 
their metropolis " the beauty of perfection, and the 
joy of the whole earth." Never had the nation 
so favorable an opportunity of forming and execu- 
ting the noblest and most useful designs, and of 
extending its influence for the melioration of our 
race. It is most probable that it was not until 
about this period that the knowledge of letters 
passed from the Hebrews to the Pagan world, and 
especially to the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and 
the Chaldeans ; each of which had peculiar facili- 
ties for becoming acquainted with the Hebrew 
language.* 

The researches of able Chronologists give weight 
to this opinion. David and Solomon were con- 
temporaneous with Hiram in Phoenicia ; with Ha- 



* See Winder. 



I 



ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 41 

dadezer in Assyria 5 and according to Sir Isaac 
Newton, with Sesostris in Egypt, and Cadmus in 
Greece. Not far from this period, we find that 
letters were introduced into different Pagan na- 
tions 5 and they gradually became the habitation 
of genius and learning as they were more or less 
remote from the Holy land. 

May we not then regard Judea as the birth [)lace 
of letters ? Her language was a sort of universal 
language j her central position had been reserved 
by the God of nations in his division of the earth, 
for the express purpose of making her the depository 
of knowledge; and her prophets, her historians, and 
her poets were eagerly sought after. She was the 
most powerful and the most accomplished nation ; 
and the active, imposing character of her inhabi 
tants ensured to her a commanding influence. 
Her priests were learned men, and their cities 
were like so many Universities. Nor is it unrea- 
sonable to believe, that to her belonged the distinc- 
tion of serving as a model to her more barbarous 
neighbours. 

The apostle once said, " I am a debtor to the 
Jew." And so is the whole literary world. If the 
press is the palladium of civilized society ; if letters 
are the great hope of its advancement, and the 
only effectual security against its return to bar- 
barity and wretchedness ; what do we not owe to 
this now scattered, but once concentrated and 
enlightened people? Whatever may be the bene- 
fits of this great art uj)on the intellectual and 



42 ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 

social character, and upon individual and public 
prosperity, may we not say, the honour of it be- 
longs to the Hebrews — to Moses their great Law- 
giver — to the Bible ? Not until this treasury of 
knowledge was unlocked, were the riches of 
thought diffused through the nations. It is not 
undeserved homage to this sacred Book to say, 
that philosophers and great men of other times 
lighted their torch in Zion, and the altars of learn- 
ing caught their first spark from the flame that 
glowed within her Temple. 

The tongue of man is the glory of his frame ; 
and the use of it was taught him by his Maker. 
These mysterious letters, too, are from him. When 
we take up a profitable book, we should recollect 
whose hand first inscribed the living characters. 
Every time we take our pen too, to inscribe these 
characters on the page of business, or of friend- 
ship, we should recollect with gratitude that we 
owe the wonderful art to him from whom coraeth 
down every good and perfect gift. 



LECTURE II. 



THE LITERARY MERIT OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



We do not claim for the Scriptures simply the 
honour of having given the world its letters. This 
they might have done, and have left the field of 
Hterature barren, and with all the difficulties of 
cultivating it to be overcome by the tedious toil 
of successive generations. But they open before 
you a " goodly land," everywhere fruitful and 
luxuriant, and ripened already to a full harvest. 
Mountain, and meadow, and pure streams diver- 
sify and adorn its surface ; and at each step a mine 
is disclosed, yielding as it is explored, new and ex- 
haustlcss treasures. Who would not be a way- 
farer amid such scenes ? 

If the Bible is of human origin, it must certainly 
be regarded as the most wonderful effort of created 
intelligence. That there should be so perfect a 
book in so early a state of tlie world 5 that no 
volume, cither ancient, or modern, and written in 
the most advanced and cultivated condition of 
human society, should compare with this ancient 



44 THE LITERARY MERIT 

record, originating in a comparatively rude age ; is 
to my own mind, a fact not easily accounted for on 
the principles of infidelity. The world is filled 
with books that are the product of the mightiest 
sons of genius ; but they are sterile and jejune, 
deformed and ungainly, in comparison with the 
riches of thought, the extent of research, the ac- 
curacy, the grace and beauty, which distinguish 
the Bible. 

Without the Scriptures, the world w^ould be 
profoundly ignorant of some of the most impor- 
tant and interesting points of historical inquiry. 
Within the narrow compass of the first few chap- 
ters in the book of Genesis, we are furnished with 
a distinct and connected history of more that two 
thousand of the earliest years of time. The nar- 
rative of Moses completely covers that period of 
history, which with other nations is called fahu- 
lous^ and which is merged in the regions of fabri- 
cation and conjecture. There are no ages of un- 
certainty here — no regions of fable — no chasm. 
From the first dawn of the creation down to the 
capture of Babylon by Cyrus, the entire period is 
filled up with events, the effects of which are 
widely extended over the earth and are visible to 
the present hour. 

There are multitudes of facts and phenomena, 
both in the natural and moral world that never 
could be accounted for, but for the Mosaic his- 
tory 5 while a slight acquaintance with that history 
shows us how exactly it is accordant with the ex- 
/ 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 45 

isting state of things both in the physical and 
moral creation. The creation of the material 
universe, about which so much has been written 
by wise men, and than which nothing is more in- 
dicative of folly, is here given so succinctly, and so 
philosophically, that all the quibbles of infidelity, 
and all the researches of natural science, instead 
of invalidating, have only served to strengthen and 
confirm our confidence that the narrator was super- 
naturally taught of God. 

The ancient account of the creation of the 
world among the Chaldeans was, that there was a 
time when all was water and darkness, and in these 
were contained the original elements of all future 
existence 5 that a woman was the great presiding 
mind ; that Belus clove her asunder, and formed 
earth of the one part, and heaven of the other ; 
that he divided the darkness, separated earth from 
heaven, and arranged the order of the universe ; 
that he then ordered one of the gods to cut oft' his 
head, to mix the blood which flowed from the 
wound with earth, and of this mixed mass to form 
men and animals ; and that after this, he framed 
the stars and ])lancts, and thus finished the produc- 
tion of all things. This account is indeed suf- 
ficiently ridiculous, and yet is it the sober narra- 
tive of Bcrosus, who was a priest in the temple of 
Belus at Babylon, who lived in the time of Alex- 
ander tin; Great, and was the author of the history 
of Chaldca. The Phconician Theogony of Sanco- 
niathan is still more ludicrous, and too absurd to be 



46 THE LITERARY MERIT 

narrated in an intelligent assembly ; but may be 
found in Eusebius, and \Yinder''s History of Know- 
ledge. The Egyptian account as given by Diodo- 
rus Siculus, was that all beings originally existed 
in a chaotic state ; that the sun and stars were 
formed by the continual agitation of the air ascend- 
ing upwards ; that the gross and earthy matter 
sunk below, and was gradually made hard by the 
heat of the sun , that animals were created from 
the heat and moisture, and eventually perpetuated, 
each, its own species. And what was the Theogony 
of the Greeks — the learned Greeks ? I may not 
utter it for its debasing impurities. Compared 
with these, and others such as these, how simple, 
how rational the narrative of Moses. '^ In the be- 
ginning God created the heavens and the earth !'" 
Here is a cause equal to the wonderful effect, 
while every view^ of the effect leads to adoring 
admiration of the power, wisdom and goodness of 
the mighty author. 

The formation of man too with all his full 
grown powers of body and of mind — his primce- 
val rectitude, federal character and fall — the pro- 
mised Saviour and his predicted victories — the 
patriarchial age — the deluge — the foundation of 
the new world — the settlement of the mother 
country — the division of the earth — the confusion 
of tongues, and the dispersion — the early settle- 
ment of Egypt — the rise and fall of the Assyrian 
Empire, even to the names of all its successive 
Princes from the first to the last — the origin, pe* 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 47 

culiarities and overthrow of the Hebrew State — 
the progress and decUne of Canaan, Persia, and 
Media, are all familiar topics of biblical history. 
Ancient cities too — Thebes, — the No-Ammi of 
Nahum — Nineveh, Jerusalem, Babylon, with all 
that rendered them the wonders of the world, 
would be traced to the remote darkness of the 
fabulous age, but for the Old Testament. The 
only authentic history of these remote events and 
kingdoms, is in the Pentateuch and in the Prophets. 
Before the days of Moses, there were no histori- 
cal records either in Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, 
Chaldea, or Greece. No otheir historian ha:^ lived 
at so remote a period as the exodus from Egypt. 
Dr. Winder shows at considerable length, that 
Moses is the only man who had any considerable 
materials for Egyptian History 5 as the ancient 
learning of Egypt must have been chiefly lost by 
the excision of the first born and the disasters of 
the Red Sea. Since the priests, the more com- 
mon depositories of learning, usually attended in 
their wars, the people who were left behind must 
have been chiefly the common people 5 so that for 
a long time after this disaster, Egypt was involved 
in ignorance and darkness 5 nor is this nation sub- 
sequently mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
until the resign of Solomon. " Moses was the 
father of history." Infidels have aflirmed, there 
were astronomical calculations in l^alMJon tliat 
reachcMl back to a |)eri()d much farther than the 
Mosaic history ; which therefore, if true, invaliilato 



48 THE LITERARY MERIT 

the entire account given by Moses. This assertion 
has received a very conclusive refutation from the 
astronomical calculations of Bedford. But there 
is a fact stated by Gillies, in his history of Greece, 
that confirms the calculations of Bedford. This 
historian states, that after the conquest of Babylon 
by Alexander, he " eagerly demanded the astro- 
nomical calculations that had been carefully pre- 
served in that ancient capitol about nineteen cen- 
turies. By the order of Alexander they were 
faithfully transcribed and transmitted to Aristotle," 
who was the preceptor of this Prince. And ''they 
re-mounted to twenty-two hundred and thirty-four 
years beyond the Christian era," a period not even 
so remote as the deluge. There is no history that 
can be so safely relied on, or that is so ancient, as 
the Mosaic history. Every other attempt at his- 
tory until the reigns of David and Solomon, is but 
a mass of shapeless re-arranged tradition, as cor- 
rupt as it is fabulous. Long after this time in- 
deed, the pages of writers esteemed the most au- 
thentic, are disfigured by absurd and disgusting 
fictions. This defect in the annals of earlier times 
must be everywhere and deeply felt, if we exclude 
the information obtained from the Bible. There 
only is the deficiency supplied. Sanconiathan, 
Berosus, Ctesias and Manetho are the oldest hu- 
man historians ; but '' Moses was five hundred 
years before the first, and more than a thousand 
before the last." 

It deserves also to be remembered that the 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 411 

chronology of the Bible is definite. The most 
authentic ancient historians abound with chrono- 
logical inconsistencies. Sir Isaac Newton has 
clearly detected great errors in the system of pa- 
gan chronology by bringing his powerful mind to 
the study of the Bible.* The authors of profane 
history are greatly indebted in this particular to 
the chronology of the Scriptures. By a careful 
comparison of its history with its prophecies, a 
standard is formed by which the chronological 
errors of pagan historians have been rectified, and 
the order of a great multitude of dates and events 
satisfactorily determined. Nor is the facility of 
doing this at all diminished by the discrepancy 
between the chronology of the Hebrew and 
Samaritan text and the Septuagint. Geography 
and chronology have been well called the " two 
eyes of history." Nor can our notions of history 
be otherwise than exceedingly confused, where 
the series of events does not lie before us in the 
due and proper order of time. 

What adds peculiar interest to the historical 
notices of the scriptures, is that they are so re- 
plete with instruction on the great and important 
subject of efficient and final causes, as well as 
moral causes generally. They bring forward in 
bold relief the su|)erintendant and all-govern- 
ing providence of the most High : — as in the his- 



• For Informalion on tliis suhjcct, son the dinbront Encyclope- 
tliaa, Bedford's chronology, and Winder. 



60 THE LITERARY MERIT 



1 



tory of Joseph, the revolt of the ten tribes, and 
the books of Esther and Daniel. They exhibit a 
luminous picture of the human character in 
every age and country with which they are con- 
versant : — as in the history of the antediluvian 
world, and the entire history of the Jewish nation. 
They present a history of the divine purposes and 
the divine government, and every where illustrate 
the great truth, that "there is a God that judgeth 
in the earth," and that he '' worketh all things after 
the counsel of his own will." They furnish a his- 
tory of the church for more than four thousand 
years. They present as their great subject the 
all-absorbing w^ork of Redemption. They have 
an object which they never loose sight of ^ a cause 
to w hich they are always subservient ; principles 
which are developed with some new^ accession of 
strength and beauty on every page 5 a Hero, not 
of mortal nature, whom they every where honour^ 
a deity, not of the poet's creation, whom they 
worship with a pure ritual, and to whom they as- 
cribe eternal praise. 

Nor need we hesitate in saying, that no w^ork 
possesses such literary merit generally^ and that 
has equal claims to be considered as the standard 
of a polished and useful literature. The char- 
acteristic style of the Bible is, that it is always 
adapted to the subjects of which it speaks. A 
chaste, terse, nervous diction distinguishes all its 
compositions. It is strongly marked by its simpli 
citv, its strength, and often its unrivalled sublimity 



I 



2 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 51 

and beauty. Its words and figures, though not a 
few of the latter are altogether new, and probably 
never would have been thought of except by the 
inspired mind who conceived them, and are - ven 
symbolical and hieroglyphic, when once presented, 
are seen and felt to accord with the familiar con- 
ceptions of men. Its manner of writing with re- 
gard to the choice and arrangement of words, is 
at all times dignified and serious, and at a great 
remove from the pomp and parade of artificial 
ornament. Everywhere we see that its great ob- 
ject is to inculcate truth^ and that it uses words 
only to clothe and render impressive the thoughts 
it would convey. There is both rhetoric and in- 
spiration in the Bible ; but amid all the boldness 
and felicity of its inventions, there is no overdoing 
— no making the most of every thing — no needless 
comment — but every thing is plain, concise, and 
unaffectedly simple. 

In the historical compositions of the Scrip- 
tures, we have the most simple, natural, affecting, 
and well told narratives in the world. Witness 
the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his 
family — tlie recapitulations in Deuteronomy — the 
narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah — the story of 
the Saviour's trial and crucifixion, and the life of 
the Apostle Paul. For fidelity and impartiality, 
for unvarnishcid truth, for the choice of its matter, 
its unity, its concise and graj)hic descriptions of 
character, and abov(i all its usefulness, tlu* his- 
torical parts of the IJible are without a parallel. 



52 THE LITERARY MERIT 

No critic can say of them. " They are too mono- 
tonous — too wordy — or too uniformly stately, tra- 
gical and emphatic." The characters walk and 
breathe. They are nature, and nothing but na- 
ture. By a single stroke of the pencil you often 
have their portrait. You see them. You hear 
them. Every scene in which you behold them is 
a fit subject for the painter. And does it not 
deserve remark, that the finest subjects for his- 
toric painting within the entire circle of the Fine 
Arts have been selected from the Scriptures ? 
Such are Lot and his two daughters hastened by 
the angels out of Sodom^ and the Finding of 
Moses on the Nile^ by Rembrant — Moses striking 
the Rock^ by Poussin — J7ie Deluge^ by Trumbull 
^-Belshazzar^s Feast^ by Martin — The Transfig- 
uration and the Madonna by Raphael — Moses re- 
ceiving the Law — Abraham and Isaac^ at the foot 
of the jnountain — PauPs Shipwreck — Christ Re- 
jected — and Death on the Pale Horse^ by West, 
— the Last Supper^ by Davinci — Christ in the 
Garden^ by Guido — the Fall of the damned — 
and the Resurrection of the Just by Rubens. Ra- 
phael, the first painter in the world, and who was 
employed so extensively, by Leo X. painted chiefly 
scriptural subjects. His famous Cartoons^ are all 
scriptural themes. Nor may it be denied, that 
these and other similar subjects have been selected 
with inimitable judgement and taste. None knew 
better how to make or prize the selection, than 
these illustrious artists; for none brought to the 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 53 

selection minds better furnished, or more intensely 
devoted to the object. I look upon it as no un 
meaning compliment to the Bible, that the best 
Artists have awarded to it this distinguished hon- 
our 5 and one reason why they have done so, 
obviously is, that profane history furnishes no such 
themes. 

Nor do I know any thing to equal the didactic 
and argumentathe parts of the Scriptures, espe- 
cially as they are presented in some of the Pro- 
phets; in the discourses of our Saviour, and the 
epistles of Paul. Read the instructions of the 
greatest of all teachers to Nicodemus : advert to 
his conversation with the woman of Samaria : 
study his argument to the complaining Jews in 
the Temple, and to the deceived multitude that 
followed him across the sea to Capernaum : turn 
to his discourse to the people at Nazareth : and 
then read his farewell address to his disci[)les. 
Where will you find so rich a vein of thought, 
argument, and alternate rebuke and tenderness ? 
There is nothing in the compositions of Addison, 
the most neat and nervous of all the English classics, 
to be compared with these, or with the Sermon on 
the Mount. Nor is th(Te anything in the fmest 
orations and treatises of the most celebrated mas- 
ters of anticpiity, so eloijuent as the glowing pre- 
diction of the great Apostle of the restoration of 
his couutryincMi, or bis triumj)hant ar^uincut for 
the resurrection, or bis boM and (»\(|nisit('ly wr<>u«i:lit 
description of tbe j)rivil("^(\s of the people of (jlod, 
'5* 



54 THE LITERARY MERIT 

You recollect how he closes the first. " O the 
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know- 
ledge of God! how unsearchable are his judg- 
ments, and his ways past finding out. For who 
hath known the mind of the Lord ? Or who hath 
been his counsellor ? Or who hath first given to 
him, and it shall be recompensed to him again ? 
For of him, and through him, and to him are all 
things : to whom be glory forever !" I cannot do 
justice to his illustration and argument relative to 
the second, without rehearsing a part of it. " All 
flesh is not the same flesh : but there is one kind 
of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of 
fishes, and another of birds. There are also celes- 
tial bodies, and bodies terrestrial : but the glory of 
the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is 
another. There is one glory of the sun, and ano- 
ther glory of the moon, and another glory of the 
stars : for one star diflereth from another star in 
glory. So also is the resurrection of the dedid. It 
is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption ^ 
it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory 5 it is 
sown in weakness, it is raised in power 5 it is sown 
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. The 
first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man 
is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such 
are they also that are earthy ; and as is the hea- 
venly, such are they also that are heavenly. And 
as we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now 
this I say, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 55 

kingdom of God 5 neither doth corruption inherit 
incorruption. Behold I shew you a mystery : We 
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump : for the trumpet shall sound and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed. For this corruptible must put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal immortality. So when 
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then 
shall be brought to pass that is written, death is 
swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy 
sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting 
of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law 5 
but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ !'^ When this 
author first presented these epistles to the world, 
I have no doubt they produced impressions of the 
deepest interest, if not of high astonishment. Some 
of you can recollect the emotions with which you 
read them more than twenty years ago ; and they 
excite the same emotions still, except that they are 
more enlightened and vigorous. You well recol- 
lect also the close of his description of the privi- 
Icijes of the children of God: ''And we know that 
all things work together for good to them that 
love God, to them who arc the called according 
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he 
also did prcnlestinate to be conformed to the imago 
of his Sou, that he might be the first born among 
many brethr(^n. Moreover whom he did predcstU 



56 THE LITERARY 3IERIT 

nate, them he also called , and whom he called, 
them he also justified 5 and whom he justified them 
he also glorified. What shall we say then to these 
things ? If God be for us, svho shall be against us ? 
He that spared not his own Son, but freely de- 
livered him up for us all, how^ shall he not with 
him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay 
anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God 
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It 
is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, 
who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
niaketh intercession for us. Who shall separate 
us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation or 
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, 
or peril, or sw^ord ? Nay, in all these things, we 
are more than conquerors through him that loved 
us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principahties, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other created existence shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord.-' There is a noble 
specimen of lofty argument and expostulation also 
in one of the early books of the Old Testament 
which I may not pass over in silence. ^' Gird up 
thy loins now like a man. I will demand of thee, 
and declare thou unto me. Will thou also dis- 
annul my judgments ? Will thou condemn me that 
thou mayst be righteous ? Hast thou an arm like 
God ? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him. 
Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency. 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 57 

and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast 
abroad the rage of thy wrath, and behold every 
one that is proud and abase him. Look on every 
one that is proud and bring him low, and tread 
down the wicked in their place. Hide them in 
the dust together, bind their faces in secret. Then 
will I also confess unto thee, that thine own right 
hand hath saved thee !" There are several fine 
points in this passage, but none more exquisitely 
fine than this, — " Cast abroad the rage of thy 
wrath, and behold every one that is proud, and 
abase him ! Look on every one that is proud, 
and bring him low /" It is a lofty challenge from 
God to the arrogance and power of man. O how 
impotent compared with the Almighty One ! There 
needs but a look from God to level the proudest 
worm. I know not where to find passages of 
equal force, sublimity, and simplicity out of the 
Bil)le. And they are but specimens from almost 
innumerable passages equally brilliant. There is 
no vapidncss in such passages as these, which palls 
on the taste. Their flowers do not fade, nor does 
thc;ir fruit loose its freshness. The sacred writers 
diii'er in this respect from all others. These dis- 
sertations have long been published to the world ; 
but they have lost none of their power, none of 
their grandeur and beauty. They are always nmv, 
and more and more deeply interest a classical 
mind, the oft(;n(T they are read and the better 
they are known. No matter how often you read 



58 THE LITERARY MERIT 

them, the last perusal leaves the highest relish be- 
hind it. 

One of the most eminent critics has said, that 
" devotional poetry cannot please." If it be so, 
then has the Bible "carried the dominion of poetry 
into regions that are inaccessible to worldly ambi- 
tion." It has " crossed the enchanted circle," and 
by the beauty, boldness, and originality of its con- 
ceptions, has given to devotional poetry a glow, a 
richness, a tenderness, in vain sought for in Shake- 
speare or Cowper, in Scott or Byron. Where is 
there poetry that can be compared with the song 
of Moses at his victory over Pharaoh 5 with the 
Psalms of David ; with the Song of Solomon, and 
with the prophecies of Isaiah ? Where is there 
an elegiac ode to be compared with the song of 
David upon the death of Saul and Jonathan, or 
the Lamentations of Jeremiah ? Where, in an- 
cient, or modern poetry is there a passage like 
this ? " In thoughts from the visions of the night, 
when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon 
me and trembling, which made all my bones to 
shake. Then a spirit passed before my face : the 
hair of my flesh stood up. — It stood still, but I 
could not discern the form thereof An image 
was before mine eyes. There was silence. And 
I heard a voice saying, shall mortal man be more 
just than God ; shall a man be more pure than his 
Maker ? Behold he putteth no trust in his ser- 
vants, and his angels he chargeth with folly. How 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 59 

much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, 
whose foundation is in the dust and who are 
crushed before the moth P Men who have felt the 
power of poetry, when they have marked the 
" deep working passion of Dante," and observed 
the elevation of Milton as he " combined image 
with image in lofty gradation," have thought that 
they discovered the indebtedness of these writers 
to the poetry of the Old Testament. But how 
much more sublime is Isaiah, than Milton ! How 
much more enkindling than Dante, is David ! 
How much more picturesque than Homer is Solo- 
mon, or Job ! Like the rapid, glowing argu- 
mentations of Paul, the poetic parts of the Bible 
may be read a thousand times, and they have all 
the freshness and glow of the first perusal. Where, 
in the compass of human language, is there a para- 
graph, which, for boldness and variety of meta- 
phor, delicacy and majesty of thought, strength 
and invention, elegance and refinement, equals the 
passage in which " God answers Job out of the 
whirlwind V^ What merely human imagination, 
in the natural progress of a single discourse, and 
apparently witbout effort, ever thus went down to 
" the foundations of the earth" — stood at " t'le 
doors of the ocean" — visited " the place where the 
day-spring from on high takes hold of the utter- 
most |)arts of the earth" — entered into "the trea- 
sures of the snow and the hail" — traced the j)ath 
of the thunder-bolt — and, penetrating the retired 
chambers of nature, demanded, " Hath the rain a 



00 THE LITERARY MERIT 

father ? or who hath begotten the drops of the 
dew ?' And how bold its flights, how inexpressi- 
bly striking and beautiful its antitheses, when from 
the warm and sweet Pleiades, it wanders to the 
sterner Orion, and in its rapid course, hears the 
" young lions crying unto God for lack of meat" — 
sees the war horse pawing in the valley — descries 
the eagle on the cra<? of the rock — and in all that 
is vast and minute, dreadful and beautiful, dis- 
covers and proclaims the glory of him who is " ex- 
cellent in counsel and wonderful in working V^ 
The style of Hebrew poetry is everywhere forci- 
ble and figurative beyond example. The book of 
Job stands not alone in this sententious, spirited 
and energetic form and manner. It prevails 
throughout the poetic part of the Scriptures 5 and 
they stand confessedly the most eminent examples 
to be found of the truly sublime and beautiful. I 
confess I have not much of the feeling of poetry. 
It is a fire that is enkindled at " the living lamp of 
nature," and glows only on a few favoured altars. 
And yet I cannot but love the poetic associations 
of the Bible. Now^, they are sublime and beauti- 
ful, like the mountain torrent, swollen and impetu- 
ous by the sudden bursting of the cloud. Now 
they are grand and awful as the stormy Galilee, 
when the tempest beat upon the fearful disciples. 
And again, they are placid as that calm lake when 
the Saviour's feet have pressed upon its waters and 
stilled them into peace. 

There is also a sublimity, an invention in the 



OF TTHE SCRIPTURES* 61 

imagery of the Bible that is found in no other 
book. Here you see " a land shadowing with 
wings" — a " star coming out of Jacob, and a scep- 
tre arising out of Israel" — the " lion of the tribe 
of Judah"— and the ^' tongue of the Egyptian Sea." 
— You read of " New Jerusalem coming down 
from God out of heaven" — of a " rain-bow rouiid 
about the throne" — of a " sea of glass" — and of a 
" woman clothed with the Sun, and the Moon un- 
der her feet." Here you have allegory, apologue, 
parable and enigma, all clearly understood and en- 
forcing truth with a strong and indehble impression. 
Here you have significant actions uttering volumes 
of instruction 5 as when "Jesus called a little child 
and set him in the midst of his disciples and said, 
except ye be converted and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven" — as when he cursed the barren fi^-tree — 
as when he ^^ washed his disciples feet." x\nd 
where is there a comparison like this, — " And the 
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled to- 
gether." Where is there a description like this, — 
" And I saw an angel standing in the Sun— nind he 
cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls (hat 
fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather your- 
selves together unto the supper of the Great God." 
Or where is there a sentence Hke the following, — 
"And I saw a gr(\'it white throne, and him that 
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven 
fl(Ml away, and there was found no places for tliem.'^ 
English lit(Mature is no common debtor to the 
6 



62 THE LITERARY MERIT 

Bible. In what department of English literature 
may not the diiTercnce be discovered between the 
spirit and sentiments of Christian writers and those 
who have drav>n all their materials of thought and 
of ornament from Pagan writers ? In the lan- 
guage of an anonymous writer, " ?s"ot to say that 
antiquity furnishes no example of a philosopher 
who could think like Newton 5 or a moralist who 
could illustrate human obligation like Edwards or 
Johnson 5 we find a proof of the superiority of 
Christian principles even in those works of ima- 
gination which are deemed scarcely susceptible 
of influence from rehgion. The common romance 
and the novel, with all their fooleries and ravings, 
w^oiild be more contemptible than they are, did 
they not sometimes undesignedly, catch a concep- 
tion^ or adorn a character from the rich treasury 
of revelation. And the more splendid fictions of 
the poet derive their highest charm from the evan- 
gelical philanthopy, tenderness, and sublimity that 
in-^est them. But for the Bible, Homer and Mil- 
ton might have stood upon the same shelf, equals in 
morality, as they are competitors for renov\n. 
Young had been ranked with Juvenal ^ and Cow- 
per had united vrith Horace and with Ovid to 
swell the tide of voluptuousness.'' 

There is not a finer character, nor a finer descrip- 
tion in all the vrorks of Walter Scott, than that of 
Rebekah in Ivanhoe. And vvho does not see that it 
owes its excellence to the Bible ? Shakespeare, 
Bvron and Southev are not a little indebted for some 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 63 

of their best scenes and inspirations to the same 
source. At the suggestion of a valued friend, I 
have turned my thoughts to the parallel between 
Macbeth and Ahab — between Lady Macbeth and 
Jezebel — between the announcment to Macduff of 
the murder of his family, and that to David of 
the death of Absalom by Joab — to the parallel 
between the opening of the Lamentations of Jere- 
miah and Byron's apostrophe to Rome as the 
Niobe of nations — to the parallel betw^ecn his ode 
to Napoleon and Isaiah's ode on the fall of Sen- 
nacherib — and also to the resemblance between 
Southey's chariot of Carmala in the Curse of Ke- 
hama, and EzekiePs vision of the wheels ; and have 
been forcibly impressed with the obligations of 
this class of writers to the sacred Scriptures. 

May it not be doubted whether scholars have been 
sufficiently sensible of their obligations to our com- 
mon English Bible, It is the purest specimen of 
English, or Anglo-Saxon to be found in the world. 
It was made by the order of James the I. in 1G07, 
by forty-seven of the most aMe and learned men 
of Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge. It has 
stood the test of two hundred and thirty years ex- 
peri(»ncc and is a nobh* monument of the integrity, 
fi(l(5Hty, and learning of its venerable translators. 
Addison remarks " There is a certain cold!i(\^s in 
th(; phrases of European languages, compariMl w\\\\ 
the oriental forms of sjxmh-Ii. The ICuglish tonguo 
lias receiv(ul imuunerable imj)rov(Mn(Mits from an 
infusion of Hebraisms, derived out of tlu^ practi- 



04 



THE LITERARY MERIT 



cal passsages in holy writ. They warm and am 
mate our language, give it force and energy, and 
convey our thoughts in ardent and intense phrases. 
There is something in this kind of diction, that 
often sets the mind in a flame and makes our 
hearts burn within us." Nor has it been at all 
improved by American Philologists. Was it too 
much for a learned Commentator to say, " Our 
translators have not only made a standard transla- 
tion ; but they have made their translation the 
standard of our language. The Elnglish tongue in 
their day was not equal to such a work. But God 
enabled them to stand as upon Mount Sinai, and 
crane up their country's language to the dignity 
of the originals 5 so that after the lapse of two 
hundred years, the English Bible, with very few 
exceptions, is the standard of the purity and excel- 
lence of the English tongue." 

The Bible has also been the instrument of pre- 
serving and diffusing classical learning among the 
most polished and literary nations. On the sub- 
version of her fairest temples, ofttimes has litera- 
ture taken refuge in the asylums of Christianity. 
Since the Ark that once contained and preserved 
this sacrea book was destroyed, this hallowed 
volume has been itself the ark in which were con- 
tained and preserved for the long night of a thou- 
sand years, and amid the rude assaults of barbarous 
nations, ^^ the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
More than once, when ignorance has enslaved the 
human mind, has the Bible stricken off its fetters. 



OF THE SCRIPTURES. 65 

The scriptures constrain men to be learned. So 
that while on the one hand, literature has nothing 
to lose, but much to gain from the Bible, the 
Bible has much to gain, and nothing to loose from 
a solid literature. '^ A little learning," says Lord 
Bacon, " tendeth to atheism 5 but more bringeth 
us back to religion." It is for the interests of reli- 
gion to encourage the pursuit of science and lite- 
rature in every form and department. The more 
the Bible is brought to the test of intellectual re- 
search, the more abundant will be the evidence of 
its superiority. From the comparative study of 
languages, from the natural history of the human 
race, from the whole circle of natural sciences, 
from early history, from oriental literature, from 
the most rigid scrutiny of its most acute aad 
learned enemies, it has nothinor to fear. The i<xno- 
ranee of its friends may give its enemies a short 
lived triumph 5 but it shall be as ignoble, as 't is 
momentary ; and the weapons by which it has 
been accomphshed shall be broken and thrown 
back, recoihng on the heads of those who wield 
them. Should some future Julian arise, who should 
d(;bar the friends of the Bible the lights of sci(Mice, 
the unbelieving world, and the powers of darkness, 
might be emboldened to assail it with new confi- 
dence. But I trust in («od that time is past. And 
were it possible that the world could again bo sui)- 
jected to the caj)ricc of a single man, and receive 
its laws from a despot, Jesus Christ is, as h<^ rvcv 
has been, ^' \u\\(\ over all things to l]\r clHirc'i,'" :i'v! 
(1* 



66 THE LITERARY MERIT, ETC. 

will make ail things subservient to her interests. 
The power of despots shall be extended or dimi- 
nished, as it shall ultimately extend or diminish the 
power of the gospel. Wise men of the East shall 
l^gain offer incense to the child of Mary. The 
Scribe and the Rabbi shall yet wreathe garlands 
for the ark of the covenant. The science of 
France and the learning of Germany shall become 
as truly tributary to the cause of truth and holi- 
ness, as was the gold of Ophir. And the most 
illustrious classics of antiquity shall gather their 
freshest bays to adorn the temples ance crowned 
with thorns. 

If it were for nothing but their literary merit 
therefore^ these Scriptures claim the earnest atten- 
tion of the young. I know of no standard by 
which the character of hterary and scientific men 
may be so safely and successfully formed. The 
more he reads, the mare^ I am confident an ac^ 
complished scholar will study the Bible. There 
are no finer English scholars than the men edu- 
cated north of the Tweed. And there are none 
who, from their childhood are so well acquainted 
with the Bible. I have heard it said that the cha- 
racteristic ivit of Scotchmen is attributable to their 
early familiarity with the Proverbs of Solomon. 
No well informed man, no well educated family is 
ignorant of the Bible. We can better afiTord to 
part with every other book from our family libraries^ 
our schools, and colleges, than this finished pro- 
duction of the Infinite mind. 



LECTURE III. 



THE OBLIGATIONS OF LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE TO 
THE BIBLE. 



Our last lecture expatiated upon the literary 
merit of the sacred writings. We purpose at the 
present opportunity, to contemplate the influence 
this remarkable book has exerted upon human 
laws — upon the science of legislation^ and the 
great principles of jurisprudence. From the 
nature of the subject, it will be seen that it will 
more tax the sober thought of my audience, than 
the previous lecture, if it docs not even tresspass 
somewhat upon their patience. 

As a general remark, it is no doubt true, that, 
like every other science, law has advanced gra- 
dually to its present state of improvement. But 
this remark is to he received with some qualifica- 
tion. That the Mosaic code was the first written 
law ever delivered to any nation no man will deny. 
And yet it was delivered in a state of high per- 
fection. 



68 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

Theoretical philosophers who have set aside, or 
forgotten the inspiration of the Scriptures, have 
taught that the earlier codes of law, — codes de- 
signed for men in their wildest state, and at a 
period of the world when their wants were few 
and simple, their rights acknowledged, and their 
crimes had scarcely begun to be flagitious, — were 
necessarily very limited and very imperfect. They 
tell us that the first regulations of human society 
were those domestic rules which the father of a 
family would have occasion to observe in the con- 
trol of his household. When men began to unite 
in villages and cities, these more private regula- 
tions would be found inadequate to restrain a more 
numerous society 5 and a body of rules, as well as 
an authority accompanied by greater power than 
the paternal, became necessary. They tell us, that 
afterwards, when towns and cities united for their 
common convenience and defence, the judicial re- 
gulations necessarily became multiplied 5 and the 
supreme authority from which they emanated, and 
by which they were to be enforced, issued sooner 
or later in different forms of magistracy. And as 
the conduct of the wisest and most just men would 
naturally suggest a rule of conduct to others, so 
their counsels and advice would gradually acquire 
force, and be adopted as a general regulation. 
And hence they tell us, that sages and philoso- 
phers w^ere the first authors of laws. 

Now, all this proceeds upon an entirely gratui- 
tous assumption 5 an assumption as contrary to 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 69 

sober, uninspired history, as it is to the word of 
God. That assumption is '' that the original state 
of man was exceedingly degraded 5 that he occu- 
pied a rank at first, httle, if any, above the beasts 
of the field 5 and that having by his own exertions 
gradually escaped from the state of brutality in 
which he was originally found, he is in a constant 
course of improvement." How far this hypothesis 
is at variance with facts, I leave believers, and 
indeed I might say, unbelievers, in Divine Re- 
velation to determine. Since the fall of man from 
that state of primeval integrity and blessedness in 
which he was created, unaided by wisdom and 
laws revealed from heaven, the invariable tendency 
of his nature has been to sink deeper and deeper 
into darkness and lawless corruption. Hence God 
gave him law at his first creation ; and by oral 
communications from heaven, guided and instruct- 
ed him for the first twenty-fjve hundred years, un- 
til he gave the Hebrew nation their memorable 
code from Mount Sinai. 

"If the foundations be destroyed, what can t'le 
righteous do ?" The enactr.^ont of wise laws, and 
the duo administration (if justice in any cominu 
nity, are so intimately inwoven witii its best in- 
terests, and of such acknowledged importance, 
that they uovd not beconui the topics of remar'v, 
LLavv is the nu^asin-e of right.^ It gives every nuui 
a rule of action, and prescribes a course of con- 
duct which entillcs him to the supj)ort and prot<H> 
tjon of society. It tci^ches men to know when 



70 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

they coniQiit injury, and when they suffer it. Eve- 
ry just law is dictated by reason and benevolence. 
Of the authority to command and the obligation 
to obedience, the foundation, or principle, is the 
happiness of those to whom the rule is directed. 
" Salus populi suprema lex." None v*^ill doubt that 
the goodness of all laws depends upon their intrin- 
sic rectitude and benevolent influence. 

" The hand of time has been passing over the 
mighty fabric of human laws for four thousand 
years ;" and yet little has been added to the stock 
of legal science, and little change has been made 
in the most improved principles of human juris- 
prudence since the days of Moses. As might have 
been justly supposed, there have been great im- 
provements in commercial law, because the He- 
brews were an agricultural, and not extensively a 
commercial people. And there have been im- 
provements in international law, because the 
Hebrews w^ere, by divine command, separated 
from other nations. Laws also have been changed 
by the condition of the countries for which they 
have been enacted 5 they have been extended in 
their specifications 5 they have been modified by 
the character, customs, religion, soil, position, and 
pursuits of different nations 5 but the fundamental 
principles, the great outline of legislative science, 
is found in the civil polity of the Jews. The last 
four books of the Pentateuch contain the founda- 
tions of all wise legislation. 

We have in the first instance the Moral Lawy 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 71 

comprised within the short compass of ten com- 
mandments. This law contains the nucleus, the 
germ of all moral obligation, enforcing the claims 
of the one only living and true God, as the auto- 
crat of the Hebrew nation, and at the same time 
presenting a comprehensive statement of the du- 
ties which man owes to his fellow man. It w^as 
given, not through the intermediate ministry of 
their legislator, but directly to the assembled na- 
tion 'y not by the voice of angels, but by the voice 
of the Almighty lawgiver. It was stamped as his 
own, and he imparted to it a sacredness and au- 
thority suited to its high pre-eminence. 

" Concerning thy testimonies," says the Psalm- 
ist, " I have known that thou hast founded them 
for ever. I esteem all thy precepts concerning all 
thfl&gs to be right." The moral law is built upon 
firm and immutable foundations. It was not im 
posed by arbitrary will, but corresponds to truth, 
to the nature of intelligent beings, and the rela- 
tions they sustain toward God and one another. 
It is adapted to all times, and places, and intelli- 
gences ; is without change, or abatement *, and is 
alike fitted to earth and to heaven. It requires 
what human laws may not require, — perfc^ct holi- 
ness 5 and it forbids what man ip.ay not forbid, — all 
sin. It has a j)r()vin('(i with which no human code 
may interR^re*, for it controls the heart. 

It may deserve inquiry, Whether the moral law 
of the ten commandments was merely a moral 
I'lw for the private govermnent of individuals ? 



72 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

Was it not a law contemplating man as about 
forming a community , and laying down certain 
rules, not merely fit tor individual conscience, but 
as also the indispensable requisites of a social 
state ? In this sense, they are not merely rules of 
conduct as to internal conscience, and which make 
m-jn responsible to God ; but rules of social exist- 
^ence, without which human society cannot con- 
tinue, and which make men responsible to the 
Stato. Do they not embody, both rules of con- 
science and the great principles of union among 
men, and constitute the vital basis of social organi- 
zation ? These ten commandments are indeed a 
wonderful code. So comprehensive a summary 
of the indispensable principles of a social state, 
and so wonderful a summary of moral duty, never 
could have been of human invention. This great 
moral code deserves to stand at the head of all 
the 3Iosaic institutions, and through the people to 
whom it was originally proclaimed, to address its 
claims to all the nations of men. 

Next to this great moral law, there is what may 
be called the Civil or Political Laics, They ' 
differ from the moral law in several important par- 
ticulars 5 but in none more than this, that they do 
not require ahsGlute perfection,^ nor forbid all 
sin. In other and plainer language, they tolerate 
what is wrong, and what the moral law does not 
tolerate. They tolerate imperfection at hearty 
for they do not profess to reach the heart. That 
is done by another law^, and by no mere civil, poli- 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 73 

lical code. They tolerate imperfection in the life ; 
for no system of human legislation, even though 
God were its author, would ever attempt to secure 
even a perfectly blameless exterior. Hence there 
were usages in the Hebrew nation which were in- 
consistent with the moral law, and with the gene- 
ral scope and spirit of the divine oracles, which 
the civil code of the Old Testament did not pro- 
hibit to the Hebrew people. 

Great complaint has been made against the Old 
Testament for these connivances ; but great injus- 
tice has been done to it in this particular. We 
have said, that every just law is dictated in wis- 
dom. But while it is indispensable to the due 
administration of justice, that no law should be 
unjust^ it is not indispensable that every just law 
which may be thought of should be enacted. A 
civil code may legislate too much, as well as too 
little. The object of a law should always be at- 
tainable, and always of sufficient importance to 
demand its enactment. It may be to a high de- 
gree fit and proper that men, as citizens, should 
do right in every thing ; while it may not be fit 
and proper, that any system of mere human legis- 
lation should require absolute perfection in human 
conduct. This, as has been before remarked, is 
the province of a moral, and not a civil code. This 
is the province of the divine lawgiver, acting as 
the moral gov(^rnor of men, and not of human 
legislation. He must do this, or his law would not 
be hoi 11^ just and good^ nor comnu^nd itself to tlir 

7 



74 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

conscience. He cannot do less, however extensive 
his empire, and however remote the period of 
time, or ages of eternity to whicli his government 
is extended. The great peculiarity of his moral 
government is, that it is a perfect government, 
connivino: at no kind or deo^ree of wickedness, and 
adjusting penalty to crime with that perfect preci- 
sion and exactness of moral balance, that is in all 
cases proportioned to the measure of its ill desert. 
But this is not the work of human legislation, un- 
less men may legislate for God, and with the design 
of securing a sinless community. This were im- 
practicable and visionary. Even were there such 
a thing as perfect rectitude among men, it would 
be impossible for any civil code to draw the line 
between guilt and innocence by any distinct or 
definite limitations. Nor could justice ever be- 
come so active, vigilant and cautious, as to prevent, 
or punish every instance of wickedness. The 
difficulty of a civil law in attempting to reach 
everything wrong is but half. The still greater 
difficulty also would be, in enforcing such laws when 
made. Their minuteness would render them dif- 
ficult to be known 5 transgressions would be con- 
stant, and the whole business of society, would be 
the discovering, trying, and punishing of offences. 
Intention too would be the corpus delicti^ and this 
would have to be tried by fallible judges, hable to 
partiality and corruption, and by means of wit- 
nesses perhaps still more liable. I can imagine no 
state of anarchy or contention equal to that which 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 75 

would be produced by civil laws attempting to en- 
force all that is right, and to prohibit all that is 
wrong. The basis of all legislation by general 
rules admits of partial evil for general good ; and 
this is the only practicable legislation. Moses, for 
example, allowed polygamy, because, in that age 
of the world it was not once thought of as a sin ; 
and the time had not come for him to sunder the 
ten thousand bonds which existed all over the na- 
tion between husbands and wives, parents and 
children, and suddenly break up the foundations 
of long established society by enforcing the origi- 
nal law of marriage. And for the same reason he 
allowed of divorce for other causes than conjugal 
infidelity, and also because in a state of society 
where polygamy is allowed, one of the means of 
gradually preventing polygamy was not to render 
divorces too difficult. 

It is essential to a moral law, as we have 
before intimated, that it tolerate nothing that is 
wrong, however strong the reasons for the con- 
nivance, while it is essential to the wisdom of 
every code of civil legislation, that it connive at 
many things, lest by aiming at too much it defeat 
its own designs. Take a plain and familiar ex- 
ample. What course would a wise man pursue, 
if he were to form a Civil Code for the Sandwich 
Islands, or for the colonies on the coast of Africa? 
Cfod has already proclaimed to them his moral 
law^ recjuiring perfect holiness. This law the faith- 
ful missionary of the cross illustrates and enforces 



76 LEGISLATIVE SCIEJVCE. 

in all tlie perfection of its precepts, and all thd 
severity of its sanctions. But as a virtuous and 
wse jurist, he is called upon to modify and change 
their civil code^ by which they shall regulate their 
mutual intercourse, define rights and tresspass, 
and crimes 5 try criminals, and determine civil 
actions. It would be puerile to suppose that he 
would prescribe to them the ten cammandments^ 
or which w ould amount to the same thing, that he 
would expressly prohibit by penal sanctions 
everything which is not accordant to the perfect 
demands of the moral law\ He would obviously 
inquire, to what extent it is practicable, expedient, 
and conducive to the ends of good government to 
require all that is right, and forbid all that is 
wrong. While the code which he would establish 
would enjoin nothing that is sinful, under a sound 
discretion he would ask, to what extent it might 
tolerate and su^er some evils, lest it should defeat 
its own design. Nay, would he not even establish 
laws to regulate those very evils 5 to prevent the 
increase and abuse of them, that ultimately and in 
a more improved and advanced state of society, 
they might be wholly eradicated ? Now this is 
what infinite wisdom has done in the civil code of 
the Hebrew^s. The moral law^ he had given them. 
But that recently enslaved people were about to 
assume a new character. They were about to be 
organized into a body politic and to be constituted 
the Hebrew state. And in this crisis of their 
history, God himself was their counsellor. He 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 77 

condescended to give them statutes and judg' 
merits^ and to become the author and framer ol 
then* civil and judicial code. And would yci 
deny to him the discretion of a wise jurist ? li. 
it to be supposed that he would conduct so 
weighty a concern with any lack of wisdom, or 
any want of regard for the condition and charac- 
ter of the people for whom he was about to legis- 
late ? John Locke could write with distinguished 
ability on the powers of the human mind ; but 
when he comes to discuss the great practical ques- 
tions of civil government, and to prepare a consti- 
tution for a free state, he is like Samson shorn of 
his strength. The divine wisdom was never more 
needed by the Hebrew nation than at the com- 
mencement of their political existence, just after 
they had escaped the servitude of Egypt. Cavil- 
lers at the political law of the Hebrews, seem to 
have lost sight of the very obvious distinction be- 
tween their moral and civil code ; while a very 
slight attention to the Scriptures, and to the na- 
ture of the case evinces that they were delivered 
at different times, to different persons, and for 
widely different ])urposes. The object of their 
civil laws is to deiine and illustrate the doctrine 
of j)ersonal rights ; to govern their intercourse in 
the common transactions of human life 5 to oxtcMul 
their influence into the domestic circk^, and regulate 
the reciprocal duties of husband and wile, parent 
and chikl, master and sc^'vant. And most al)un- 

dantly do they indicate their divine Author. 

7# 



78 LEGISLATIVE SCIEKCE. 

We cannot do justice to this part of our subject 
without entering briefly into some specifications. 
The caution with which the Mosaic law prevented 
the accumulation of debt, — the fidelity with which 
they required the restoration of lost property, — 
the restoring of property that was injured, or 
stolen, in the former case to the full amount of its 
original value, and in the latter to double that 
amount, — and the distinctness and simplicity of 
the law of bailment, are replete with instruction 
to every succeeding generation of men. Any man 
who carefully reads that beautiful treatise of Sir 
William Jones on this last subject, will see that 
all the leading principles of the law of bail- 
ment there illustrated,, are found in the law of 
Moses.* In the Mosaic code you find the follow- 
ing law in relation to injuries arising from care- 
lessness and inattention. " If a man shall open 
a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover 
itj and an ox^ or an ass fall therein, the owner of 
the pit shall make it good, and give money unto 
the owner of them 5 and the dead beast shall be 
his. And if one man's ox hurt another's that he 
die 5 then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the 
money of it , and the dead ox also they shall di- 
vide.'^ This law contains the germ of all the ex- 
isting refinements of the law of injuries from want 
of care, and those arising without fault. There fe 
a nice equity in this law, where, upon payment for 



' Exod. 22. 14» 15. 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 79 

the damages, " the beast shall be his" who was the 
occasion of the injury. The division of the loss, 
too, where neither party is in fault, is a very re- 
fined notion of equity. It is the rule at the pre- 
sent day, in the case of the collision of ships *, and 
is buth more equitable and more tender than leav- 
ing the loss upon that party who, by accident, first 
sustains it. Dividing the loss also greatly dimin- 
ished the temptation to quarrel about the probable 
fault, and to prevent a litigation ; and this is a car- 
dinal object of all wise governments.* The doc- 
trine of restitution in the cases of theft, of the 
difference in the degree of restitution between the 
selling and killing the stolen ox, or sheep, and 
its being found in the thief's hand, was both most 
just and most politic. As the article could be re 
stored, there was no fear of the thief's gaining by 
a difference of value between the sold or killed ox, 
and those to be restored.! The law of mandato- 
ries^ or the law concerning property given in 
charge for safe keeping, is not to be surpassed for 
wisdom and equity, and all the refinements of the 
law to this day, do not carry the principle any 
further.^ No rule of damages in cases of seduc- 
tion is so wise as that in the law of Moses. It is 
the usual one lawyers now present to juries, where 
the case is one of real deception.|| These, and 



• Exodus 21. 33—35. ]\h. 22. 1 — 4. % II). 7—15. 

1 lb, 16, 17. 



80 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

other similar laws are expressive of great w^isdom, 
and have been uniformly honoured by all wise and 
benevolent legislators. 

It has no doubt occurred to the intelligent 
reader of the Mosaic law, that there is a series of 
tender and sentimental injunctions^ the design of 
which was to form the moral sensibilities of the 
Hebrews by a standard at once the most refined 
and honourable. They consist chiefly of precepts 
directory, to which no penalty is annexed, except 
that which might be inflicted by the all-governing 
hand of God in the ordinary dispensations of his 
providence. But they were designed to exert a 
powerful influence 5 to be great moral axioms ; to 
guard men against unnatural obduracy, and hard- 
ness of feeling ; and be a sort of standing appeal 
to the tenderness and honour of men in all their 
mutual intercourse. I allude to such examples as 
the following. " Thou shalt not vex a stranger, 
nor oppress him ; for ye were strangers in the 
land of Egypt. Ye shall not afllict any widow, 
nor fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any 
wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely 
hear their cry ; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I 
will kill you with the sword 5 and your wives shall 
be widows, and your children fatherless." God 
bound them to act in this matter from an affec- 
tionate regard to his authority 5 and gave them 
distinctly to understand, that if they refused to do 
so, he himself would become the guardian of the 
poor, the father of the fatherless, the protector of 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 81 

the helpless orphan, the widow's God, and the 
avenger of her wrongs. A law like this is an 
everlasting testimony against the man who ne- 
glects the sufferings of his brethren 5 and though he 
may have all the religious ardour and zeal of a 
martyr, it denounces him as a base dissembler. 
Of the same general character is the injunction, 
to leave the '^forgotten sheaf" in the field in the 
time of harvest ; not " go over the boughs of the 
ohve tree a second time ^" nor ''' twice glean the 
grapes of their vineyard 5" but that what remained 
after the first gathering, should be left for ''the 
stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." The 
same remarks are also pertinent to the rule as to 
" pledges," forbidding them to " take the upper or 
nether millstone to pledge," because this was the 
life, and only remaining means of sustenance to 
the poor. Tiiere is a remarkable delicacy too, a 
singular refinement of feeling in the law relative 
to pledges. ''When thou dost lend thy brother 
any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch 
his pledge." You may not enter there to discover 
the nakedness of the land. Your eye shall not 
penetrate the miseries of his bumble dwelhng. 
Your presence shall not bring the blush of shame 
upon the face of his mortified family. You shall 
not have the opportunity of publishing to the 
world their abjoctness and low estate. " Thou 
shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou 
dost lend, shall brini:; out the pledge abroad unto 
thee," Of the same general charact(T is the law 



82 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

that required a man, if he " met his enemy's ox, 
or ass going astray, to bring it back to him again ;" 
the law that the ••' wages of every hired labourer 
should be paid punctually before the going down 
of the sunj" the injunction against slander and 
tale bearing 5 the law against usury 5 and the lav 
which even guards against hardening the feelingd 
by destroying the bird with her eggs. Now, all 
this was above any mere philosopher, sage, or 
hero. These precepts are very touching; they 
are the finest political morality 5 and not only very 
high morality, but very deep sentiment. A leader 
of a horde of fugitive slaves, who had employed 
his time in tending sheep upon the mountains of 
Arabia Petrea, and associating with oppressed 
makers of bricks, could hardly, of his own undi- 
rected wisdom, have been so sentimental in his 
equity. A collection of the rules of this general 
character would be one of the most striking collec- 
tions of kind, considerate, and merciful legislation 
ever know^n 5 and can scarcely be believed of a 
lawgiver so sternly denouncing blood for every 
crime which struck at the social organization. 
The combination of the two things proves him, 
not to have been a cruel, and to have been a wise 
legislator. 

The trial of jealousy also is a singular institu- 
tion among the Hebrews, if actually practised. 
But there is in it such an appeal to the secret ter- 
ror of a guilty conscience, as to have prevented 
any but the innocent from submitting to its appa- 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 83 

rently harmless portions. How ditferent was this 
trial to an innocent person from the trials of 
Ordeal in the dark ages. What innocent wife 
could walk over burning plough shares 5 steep her 
hands or feet in burning oil 5 or float, when fet- 
tered, in the horse-pond ? The poor Jewess had 
an ordeal which could not hurt the innocent 5 
while the middle ages had ordeals which left the 
innocent no chance of escape. 

So likewise the reference of matters of so much 
nicety as not to be capable of solution by judges, 
to the priesthood as a hody^ and punishing with 
death a presumptuous contempt of the sentence, 
was well calculated to protect the ordinary magis- 
trate from the animosity of a losing party, where 
the question of right was very difficult, and where 
the loosing party would never be satisfied with a 
mere reason. In modern constitutions it is now 
necessary to rest the ultimate decision of difficult 
matters to large bodies, who cannot, from their 
very multitude, be objects of personal animosity. 

After their civil, or political laws, is their code 
of Penal Statutes, Law punishes as well as pro- 
tects 5 and punislies only to strengthen its protec- 
tion. In a well governed state, crime is prevented 
more frequently than punished. To make punish- 
ment unnecessary is the great employment of legis- 
lative wisdom. There are, I know, some peculia- 
rities in the pc^ial code of the Ilcbrc^ws which 
hav(^ hvcn the subject of loud couq)hiint. Not a 
few of these peculiarities are to be accounted for 



84 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

by the fact that they were designed to keep that 
people distinct from the rest of mankind, and thus 
prevent their being involved in the idolatry of the 
pagan world. Infidels have made themselves merry 
also at the minuteness of this code. And it may 
be, that there are some honest, but fastidious 
readers of the Old Testament whose delicacy has 
been wounded at the rehearsal of some of those 
very recitals, which have contributed to the forma- 
tion of that high standard of susceptibility which 
shrinks from the conception of laws so necessary 
to this degraded people. When we consider that 
the Mosaic code was prescribed for a people igno- 
rant of all law 5 a people who had just emerged 
from the most abject slavery 5 a people scarcely 
beyond the limits of the most loathsome and defil- 
ing paganism ; we shall cease to wonder at the 
minuteness of its details, and admire the divine 
wisdom and condescension in stooping thus to 
their low condition. 

There are several striking points of difference 
between the Mosaic penal code and that of most 
modern states. One of these is the requiring of 
two witnesses for every mortal crime, and that 
the witnesses should aid in the execution of the 
guilty. This is a very remarkable provision among 
such a people as the Hebrews; wonderfully cal- 
culated to prevent false testimony, and deserves 
imitation among the most enlightened judges and 
legislators. Another is, that they had no law of 
imprisonment^ either for debt, or for crime. There 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 85 

I 

are but two recorded exceptions to this remark 
within my knowledge. The one is the keeping 
of a criminal in custody for a single night, until 
the will of the Deity could be consulted concern- 
ing him, and the other is the appointment of the 
cities of refuge for the man-slayer. Though of 
ancient usage and origin, imprisonment did not 
originate with the law of Moses. Instead of im- 
prisoning for crime, the Mosaic code requires the 
immediate and prompt execution of the law. It 
was their doctrine that laws were made to be exe- 
cuted ; and the divine lawgiver saw fit to decide 
that there should be no needless delay in the exe- 
cution. Another striking difference related to the 
character of the crimes that were punishable with 
death. They were all either of high moral malig- 
nity, or crimes that tended to the subversion of 
their whole civil poHty, and endangered the social 
existence of the nation. The propriety of the 
law against them rests upon the same grounds as 
the punishment of treason and murder, and is ful- 
ly justified. In ordinary cases, constituted as that 
nation was, under a Theocracy^ they strike at the 
root of social existence ; and the severity of the 
punishment against them was in self-defence for the 
very existence of society. Besides, with a people 
of extreme simplicity as to property, almost the 
only punishment must be personal ; and as they 
wer(; emerging from a slavery wherc^ the taking of 
lifdi was |)rol)ably very common, capricious, and 
despotic, without severe punishments they were 

8 



86 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

without any. One thing also, is quite remarkable 
in a code where the ignorance of the people and 
the simplicity of property and social state left the 
lawgiver few punishments of which to choose and 
threw him upon stripes or death. I mean the 
tenderness of bloody and the almost superstitious 
reference for human life. The ox that killed 
a man, or woman, was stoned, nor should his 
flesh be eaten ^ and if he were an unruly ox, and 
this be known to his owner, not only was the ox 
stoned, but his oivner was put to death. This is 
the origin of all those forfeitures in law which 
arise from the misfortune rather than the crime of 
the owner, and are called deodand.^ It is not 
long since this principle was carried into exten- 
sive operation in the laws of England. Whatever 
personal chattel was the immediate occasion of 
the death of any reasonable creature, was forfeited 
to the king and appUed to benevolent purposes. 
Bracton states the law to have been, that " all 
things which, while in motion, caused death, are 
to be offered to God." But the English law was 
even more extensive than this. If a man were 
killed by a fall from a cart, or a horse, the cart or 
horse was forfeited. A well in which a person 
was drowned, was ordered to be filled up under 
the inspection of the coroner. And among the 
Athenians, "w^hatever was the cause of man's 



" Blackstone's Commentaries, vol I. chapter Bth. 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 87 

death by falling upon him, was exterminated, or 
cast out of the dominions of the republic." There 
seems to us to be superstition in such a law, but it 
is a humane superstition. The mind was taught 
by it to contemplate with horror the privation of 
human life 5 and it might not be famiHar even with 
an insensible object which had been the occasion 
of death, lest that sentiment should be diminished. 
The most corrupt and melancholy state of human 
society is that in which the mind becomes familiar- 
ized to blood 5 and it is a question of grave import, 
whether any thing is gained by abrogating even 
the sacred, and, if you please, superstitious, regard 
to human life which was inspired by this great 
principle of the Mosaic code. 

When you take up the special examples of penal 
law under this code, you cannot but admire their 
wisdom. You have in the first place idolatry^ 
and the penalty was death. It was treason against 
the state, to acknowledge any other as king, than 
God. This crime also was always connected with 
the inhuman and bloody practice of offering human 
sacrifices. It was of most aggravated enormity, 
and struck at the very existence of the nation. 
The next crime is hlasphemy^ and was punished 
with death for the same sufficient reason. The 
next is dehboratc and wilful murder, '' IIo tiiat 
smiteth a man so that ho die, shall surely be |)ul to 
dcatli." This was a r(vpid)lication of the law given 
to Noah, and in my humble judgment is obliga- 
tory upon the world in all subseipicnt ages. The 



88 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

nice distinctions laid down in the Mosaic code 
between murder and manslaughter, are to the pre- 
sent day the just and recognized principles of the 
law of homicide, and are carried out into every 
ramification without any new principle. Another 
mortal crime is smiting a parent. This is a very 
unnatural, uncommon, and improbable crime. Like 
several others, it struck at the basis of society, 
framed as it was on a patriarchal model and or- 
ganization, which could not continue long on the 
land given to it unless the simple principles of its 
organization were severely defended. So of curs- 
ng a parent^ which was also punished with the 
same severity. And so of inveterate disobedience 
to parents for the same reason. So also of incest 
^—sodomy — bestiality — -forcible violation — and 
ttfZMZ/^ri/, and allfor the same reason. So also of 
false pretensions to prophecy for the same rea- 
sons with idolatry and blasphemy. So also of 
witchcraft. Whether witchcraft be imaginary, or 
not, no cruelty is known equal to that committed 
by pretenders to this mystery. Witness the medi- 
cine men of our own western Indians. In an 
ignorant body of slaves, without inteUigence and 
subject to superstitions, pretensions to witchcraft 
were likely to be most disastrous to the happiness 
of the people, and very dangerous to the govern- 
ment : and I would at this day, legislating for our 
Indians, or for negroes subject to Obi superstition, 
punish conjuring with death, quite as readily as 
for any crime short of actual murder, or treason. 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 89 

The only other crimes punishable with death by 
the Mosaic code, were manstealing, Sabbath break- 
ing, and contumacious resistance against the su- 
preme authority of the State. The time was, and 
that less than two hundred years ago, when by the 
laws of England, one hundred and forty-eight 
crimes were punishable with death. By the Mo- 
saic code there are seventeen. Let the profane 
cease from their rebukes of the penal statutes of 
Moses ! 

There is one fact in relation to the Mosaic 
code which is a severe rebuke to modern govern- 
ments. No injury simply affecting property^ 
no invasion of personal rights whatever, could 
draw down upon an Israelite an ignominious 
death. Mammon was not the god of the Mo- 
saic law. That code respected mcwal depravity 
more than gold. Moral turpitude and the most 
atrocious expressions of moral turpitude, these 
were the objects of its unsleeping severity. 

" Mammon leads us on, 
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 
From heaven ; for e'en in heaven his looks and thoughts 
Were always downward bent, admirinnr more 
The riches of heaven's j)avenient, trodden gold, 
Than ouglit divine or iioly." — 

Nor is it a slight commendation of that code, 
that its laws were equal. Ye "shall have one 
maruu;r of law as well for the stranger, as for one 
of your own country." Every man in the coin- 
s' 



90 LEGISLATIVE SCIEJXCE. 

munity had the same protection from the penal 
laws. 

Not a httle has been said against the law of 
retaliation, or the lex talionis^ as it is enjoined in 
this code. But has it not been hastily said ? No 
man doubts that, as the law of individual^ and 
private revenge^ it is wrong. It is in this view, 
and only in this view, that it is condemned by the 
Saviour, and superseded by the injunction, " Resist 
not evil." No man may take the law into his ow^n 
hands, and become at pleasure the avenger of his 
own wrongs. But where is its severity, or ini- 
quitableness, as the adjudicated decision of a legal 
tribunal ? The lex talionis in relation to delibe- 
rate and premeditated crimes is just, and it is not 
certainly impolitic. " Thou shall give life for life.^' 
Nor do I see any injustice, or inexpediency in 
punishing deliberate maiming by a similar judicial 
maiming. No man can say, it is not the measure 
of punishment most consonant to natural equity. 
As applied to perjury, a crime always of great and 
studied premeditation, there is a strong propriety 
in its being rigidly executed, and in doing to the 
perjurer " as he had thought to have done unto 
his brother.-' 

Nor let the conscientious reader of the Mosaic 
law be induced to imagine that there is any thing 
either in the civil or penal code of the Hebrews 
that requires and justijies sin. It is not so. 
Great injustice has been done in this particular to 
the Old Testament, as I have remarked before. 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 91 

There is a difference between a moral and a 
judicial code, even though proceeding from the 
same source ; and though what the former may 
not allow, the latter may not require^ yet what the 
former may forbid, the latter may leave unnoticed, 
and even regulate and control. It is not necessary 
that a code of civil laws should adjudicate upon 
every moral evil. It is not best that it should. 
Notwithstanding all that has been said and writ- 
ten, there is no evidence to my mind that there is 
any thing in the laws of Moses which countervails 
the unchanging principles of moral rectitude. 
Sometimes you find the Saviour, when comment- 
ing on that code, giving the preference to a moral 
precept over a positive institution, but this is no 
evidence that the positive institution was sinful. 
Moses " suffered some things for the hardness of 
the hearts of the people," which, in a subsequent 
age and a different state of society, he would 
not have suffered ; but this is no evidence that 
what he judicially suffered he morally approved. 
Not an instance can be found in which the divine 
command required that, which can upon any fair 
construction, be regarded as a violation of that 
rule of right, which is founded in the nature and 
relation of things, and is written in every human 
heart. • Tlie Jews in the time of Christ had erro- 
neous views of the laws of Moses, and perverted 
them, and needed the exposition which was given 
th(Mn l)y th(^ Saviour. And not a lew at (h(^ pre- 
sent day have erroneous views of the instructions 



92 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

of Christ, and pervert them, and need to be taught 
that they are perfectly consistent with the instruc- 
tions of Moses. The gospel is in advance of the 
law, but not in opposition to the law. Moses 
wrote of Christ, and if we believe the words of 
Christ, we shall believe the writings of Moses. 

The Jews were a favoured people. Their penal 
laws are so much distinguished for discretion, hu- 
manity, equity, and mildness, that they cannot but 
challenge the admiration of every intelligent jurist. 
Let them be compared with Hales' Pleas of the 
Crown, and it is no difficult matter to see on which 
side the advantage lies. Nothing escapes their 
notice. They guard the morals as well as the per- 
sons of the community. It were well if every 
crowded city had as good a system of sanitary re- 
gulations as the camp of Israel. The uniform 
tendency of their whole system of jurisprudence 
was to promote a good understanding between 
man and man ; and the great object of their po- 
lice, the prevention, rather than the punishment of 
crime. Moses is not less truly the great lawgiver, 
than the first historian. The surrounding and 
contemporaneous nations were far in the rear of 
this favoured people in every department of legis- 
lative knowledge. Chaldea, Egypt, Phoenicia, 
Media, Persia, then under the sovereignty of 
Cherdorlaomer, had every thing to learn on this 
subject from the Hebrews. '^ What nation," says^ 
the God of Israel to his chosen people, " what na- 
tion is there so great, that hath statutes and judg 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENC",. 513 

ments so righteous, as all this law which I set be- 
fore you this day V^ 

Men do not always follow ancient customs be- 
cause they are wise. And yet is there no doubt 
that many succeeding ages, as well as those that 
were contemporaneous, were deeply indebted to 
the Mosaic institutions. Dr. Graves, in his admi- 
rable lectures on the Pentateuch, says, that " the 
Mosaic code must have been generally known in 
those eastern countries from which the most an- 
cient and celebrated legislators and sages derived 
the model of their laws." Moses indeed labours 
to impress this thought upon his countrymen as a 
powerful motive for a careful observance of their 
institutions. "Keep therefore and do them, foi 
this is your wisdom and your understanding in the 
sight of the nations which shall hear of all these 
statutes, and say, surely this great nation is a wise 
and understanding people." The lawgivers of na- 
tions bordering on the Jews borrowed many of 
their institutions from the laws of Moses. This 
was obviously true of the Egyptians and the Phoe- 
nicians. During the reii^n of Artaxerxes Longi- 
manus, while the Jews were scattered through- 
out the kingdom of Persia, their laws were the 
subjects of remark and notoriety ; for Haman 
speaks of them to the king as " div(Mse from tho 
laws of all peo[)le." That the extent to which tho 
laws of Greece wcmc indebtcMl to tin) institutions 
of Moses was not inconsidcM'ahh^, may be* interrc^d 
ffoin the influence of the Hebrew State on thg 



94 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

political condition of the world, during the early 
ages of the Grecian history, as well as from the 
direct testimony of learned men. Very many 
points of resemblance between the Grecian laws 
and customs, and those of the Hebrews are stated 
by Archbishop Potter, in his Antiquities, The 
Athenians had a prescribed bill of divorce, and so 
had the Jews. Among the Jews, the father gave 
names to the children *, and such was the custom 
among the Greeks. The purgation oath among 
the Greeks strongly resembles the oath of jealousy 
among the Hebrews. The harvest and vintage 
festival among the Greeks — the presentation of 
the best of their jflocks, and the offering of their 
first fruits to the gods — together with the portion 
prescribed for the priests — the interdiction against 
garments of diverse colours — protection from vio- 
lence to the man who fled to their altars — would 
seem to indicate that the Greeks had cautiously 
copied the usages of the Jews. And whence was 
it that no person was permitted to approach the 
altar of Diana, who had touched a dead body, or 
been exposed to other causes of impurity, and that 
the laws of Athens admitted no man to the 
priesthood who had any blemish upon his person, 
unless from the institutions of Moses ? And has 
not the agrarian law of Lycurgus its prototype, 
though none of its defects, in the agrarian law of 
the Hebrews ? Many of the Athenian laws in re- 
lation to the descent of property, and the prohi- 
bited degrees of relationship in marriage, seem to 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 95 

have been transcribed by Solon from the laws of 
Moses. Sir Matthew Hale, in his History of the 
Common Law of England^ affirms, " that among 
the Grecians, the laws of descents resemble those 
of the Jews." 

It will be universally conceded that the Roman^ 
or Civil Law^ as collected and digested by the 
order of Justinian, has exerted a powerful influ- 
ence even on the institutions of modern times. Nor 
is it to be supposed that this intelligent people, who 
had long suffered under the evils of unwritten laws, 
when they turned their attention to the formation 
of a more certain and permanent code, would not 
consult the existing laws of the wisest nations. 
Both ancient and modern writers of Roman his- 
tory, therefore affirm, that the individuals commis- 
sioned by the senate and tribunes to form the 
Twelve Tables, were directed to examine the laws 
of Athens and the Grecian cities. So that the Ro 
man law must have been not a little indebted to 
the Mosaic. 

Sir Matthew Hale remarks, " that among the 
many preferences which the laws of England have 
above others, the two principal ones are, the here- 
ditary transmission of property, and the trial by 
jury." And who does not see that these originated 
with the Jews ? By the law of Moses, the succes- 
sion, in the descending line, was all to the sons, ex- 
cept that tli(^ oldc^st son had ;i double portion. If 
the son iVwd in his father's lifetime, the grandson 
Bucceeded to the portion of his fiithrr. Daughters 



96 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

had no inheritance so long as there were sons, or 
descendants of sons. Where the father left only 
daughters and no sons, the daughters succeeded 
equally. And was there nothing in the administra- 
tion of penal justice among the Hebrews, that sug- 
gested at least the trial by jury ? I mean the pub- 
licity of their trials in the gates of the city, where 
their judges, though elders and Levites, were taken 
from the general mass of the citizens. Sir Mat- 
thew Hale, in the work to which reference has 
already been made, has another remark in relation 
to the influence which the Bible generally has ex- 
erted upon the laws of England. In speaking of 
the difficulties of ascertaining the origin of the 
common law, among the rest he enumerates the 
" growth of Christianity in the kingdom, introdu- 
cing some new laws, or abrogating some old ones, 
that seemed less consistent with Christian doc- 
trines." A portion of the common law as it now 
stands was first collected by Alfred the Great 5 and 
it is asserted by Sismondi, in his History of the Fall 
of the Roman Empire, that when this prince 
" caused a republication of the Saxon laws, he in- 
serted several laws taken from the Judaical ritual 
into his statutes, as if to give new strength and co- 
gency to the principles of morality." And hence, 
it is no uncommon thing in the early English re< 
porters to find frequent references to the Mosaic 
law. Sismondi also states that one of the first acts, 
of the clergy under Pepin and Charlemagne of* 
France, was to introduce into the legislation of the 



I 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 97 

Franks, several of the Mosaic laws found in the 
books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus. 

I need not say, that the entire code of civil and 
judicial statutes throughout New England, as well 
as throughout those states first settled by the de- 
scendants of New England, shows nothing more 
distinctly than that its framers were familiar with 
the Bible, and substantially adopted " the judicial 
laws of God, as they w ere delivered by Moses, as 
binding and a rule to all their courts ?" And why 
should not this sacred book, so full of the counsels 
of wisdom, and itself a law to man, exert a para- 
mount influence on all human laws, wherever it is 
known and revered ? " The Scripture," says the 
judicious Hooker, " is fraught even with the laws 
of nature, insomuch that Gratian, defining natural 
right^ termcth it that which the books of the law 
and the gospel do contain. Neither is it vain that 
the Scripture aboundeth with so great store of laws 
of this kind 5 for they are such as we of ourselves 
could not easily have found out 5 and then the benefit 
is not small to have them readily set down to our 
hands 5 or if they be so clear and manifest, that no 
man endued with reason can lightly be ignorant of 
them, yet the Spirit, as it were, borrowing them 
from the school of nature, and a|)plying them, is 
not without most singular use and profit for men's 
I instruction." 

I It was from God himsc^lf (hat one nation, and 

one only imincdiafc iy received their laws. And 

thc^ are worthy to be regarded as the model for 

9 



98 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

all succeeding ages. There is no comparison be- 
tween the laws of this people and the laws of other 
ancient nations, except as the latter were bor- 
rowed from the institutions of Moses. The learnec^. 
Michaelis, who was professor of law in the univer 
sity of Gottengen, remarks, " that a man who con 
siders laws philosophically, who would survey them 
with the eye of a Montesquieu, would never over- 
look the laws of Moses." Goguet, in his elaborate 
and learned treatise on the Origin of Laws^ ob- 
serves, that "the more we meditate on the laws of 
Moses, the more we shall perceive their wisdom 
and inspiration. They alone have the inestimable 
advantage never to have undergone any of the 
revolutions common to all human laws, which have 
always demanded frequent amendments 5 some- 
times changes 5 sometimes additions 5 sometimes 
the retrenching of superfluities. There has been 
nothing changed, nothing added, nothing retrench- 
ed from the laws of Moses for above three thousand 
years." Milman, in his history of the Jews, re- 
marks, that " the Hebrew lawgiver has exercised a 
more extensive and permanent influence over the 
destinies of mankind, than any other individual in 
the annals of the world." It was the opinion of 
that distinguished statesman and jurist, the late 
Fisher Ames, dare et venerahile nomen^ that " no 
man could be a sound lawyer who was not wel 
rear! In the laws of Moses." 

This venerable code claims our reverence, if it 
were for nothing but its high antiquity. But it 



^1 



LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 99 

has higher claims. Taken as a whole, it contains 
more sublime truths, and maxims more essentially 
connected with the well-being of our race, than all 
the profane writers of antiquity could furnish. 
They were perfect at their formation 5 uniting alJ 
that is authoritative in obligation, with all that is 
benevolent in their tendency, and not less condu- 
cive to the glory of the lawgiver, than to the hap- 
piness of his subjects. That bold personilication 
of law in the abstract made by Hooker, may with 
strong propriety be applied to the system of legis- 
lation revealed in the Bible. " Of law there can 
be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is che 
bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. 
All things in heaven and earth do her homage ; 
the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest 
as not exempt from her power. Both angels and 
men, and creatures of what condition soever, 
though each in a different sort and name, yet all 
with one uniform consent, admire her as the mother 
of their peace and joy." 

A portion of this law was designed to be author- 
itatively binding on the Jews alone ; another por- 
tion of it is equally binding on us ; and " though 
heaven and earth pass away, shall never pass 
away." — " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and thy ncMghbour as thyself." The 
nature and extent of this law, and our everlasting 
responsibihties to it as the creatures of God, as in- 
telligent and responsible agents, it becomes us, my 
young friends gravely to investigate, both as it re- 



100 LEGISLATIVE SCIENCE. 

lates to our destiny in this world and that which is 
to come. We are not, Hke the vegetative and ani- 
mal creation, passive subjects, submitting to the 
imperative law of our nature, but active, accounta- 
ble existences, voluntarily obeying or refusing to 
obey. All the features of this law we know are 
^ holy, just, and good." Its very penalty is but the 
sterner accent of love warning us of our danger. 
Its penalty and precept are both written upon the 
conscience 5 and wo be to the transgressor, who, 
because it is no longer the rule of his justification 
before God, disregards it as the rule of his duty. 



n 



LECTURE IV. 



THE BIBLE FRIENDLY TO CIVIL LIBERTY. 



Every considerate friend of civil liberty, in order 
to be consistent with himself, must be the friend 
of the Bible. I have yet to learn, that tyrants 
have ever effectually conquered and subjugated a 
people, whose liberties and public virtue were 
founded upon the word of God. The American 
people, I am confident, owe much in this resp^ ct 
to the influence of this great charter of human 
freedom. I need scarcely solicit the favourable 
regard of my audience, therefore, when I say to 
them, that the topic of the present lecture is the 
influence which the Holy Scriptures have exerted, 
and arc adapted to exert upon civil liberty. 

Civil liberty is not frcedoni from restraint. Men 
may be wisely and benevolently checked and con- 
troled, and yet be free. No man has a right to 
act as he thinks fit, irrespective of tlie wish(\s and 
intercists of others. This wvvq exiMuption frDiii the 
restraints of all law, and from all the wholesome 



102 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

influence of social institutions. Heaven itself were 
not free, if this were freedom. No created being 
holds any such liberty as this, by a divine warrant. 
The spirit of subordination, so far from being in- 
consistent with liberty, is inseparable from it. It 
is essential to liberty that men should be subjected 
to the restraints of law ; and where this restraint 
is limited by a wise regard to the best interests of 
the State, there men are free. Every restraint of 
natural liberty that is arbitrary and needless ; that 
is imposed on one class of society, merely for the 
sake of aggrandizing, and augmenting the influence 
of another 5 every restraint that is not called for, 
for the purpose of securing to men of every rank 
and condition their just rights, and of diffusing the 
spirit of industry, virtue and peace, is in its o^vn 
nature tyranny and oppression. The highest de- 
gree of civil liberty is enjoyed where natural liberty 
is so far only abridged and restrained, as is neces- 
sary and expedient for the safety and interest of 
the society or State. A community may be free, 
for example, without extending to persons of all 
ages and both sexes the right of suffrage ; without 
making all eligible to office ; without abolishing 
the distinction of rank ; without annihilating the 
correlative and reciprocal rights and duties of 
master and servant ,• without destroying filial sub 
ordination and parental claims ; without abohshing 
the punishment of crime 5 without abjuring the 
restraints of sanative and maritime law j and with- 
out giving up the right of those compulsory services 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 103 

of its subjects which the common weal demands. 
The civil liberty of men " depends not so much on 
the removal of all restraint from them^ as in the 
due restraint of the natural liberty of others,^ 
There are a few leading principles on which all free 
governments must forever rest. They are such as 
the following : That government is instituted for 
the good of the people — that it is the right and 
duty of the people to become acquainted with 
their public interests — that all laws constitutionally 
enacted, should be faithfully and conscientiously 
obeyed — that the people, by their representatives, 
should have a voice in the enaction of these laws 
— ^that mild and moderate laws should be invested 
with energy — that the life, liberty, and property of 
no man shall be infringed upon, except by process 
of law — that every man who respects and obeys 
the laws has a right to protection and support — 
and that all that is valuable in civil institutions 
rests on the intelligence and virtue of the people. 
Such, as far as I am acquainted with them, are the 
great principles of civil liberty and a free govern- 
ment, let the form of that government be what it 
may. It may be monarchical, or republican \ its 
constitution may be written, or unwritten ; but 
wherever the duties of magistrates and subjects 
are prescribed and defined, and their rights |)ro- 
tected by the preceediiig principles, a })eoi)le may 
be said to be free. 

There never has been any such tiiin<j: as true 
freedom amon<^ those who were i'niuraat of tho 



104 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

word of God. The great mass of men from the 
more early ages of the world to the present time, 
have been controlled by mere arbitrary power. 
They have known very little of exemption from 
the arbitrary will of others. In many countries, 
this exemption has indeed been secured by estab- 
lished laws, and has had the semblance of salutary 
restraint 5 while the laws themselves have been 
lawless and arbitrary 5 at one time extravagantly 
severe, and at another extravagantly indulgent, 
and the mere expression of individual fickleness 
and authority. 

There are few profane historians, with the ex- 
ception of Herodotus and Thucydides that can be 
relied upon, which give any account of the world 
earlier than Alexander. From that time down- 
wards, the history of nations becomes more clear, 
just, and authentic ; but from that time upwards, 
the Bible is the only source of authentic informa- 
tion. There was a general dispersion of mankind 
into various parts of the world, as early as the 
days of Peleg, and probably, just before the death 
of Noah, and under his direction. Eusebius and 
Winder give some very plausible reasons, to say 
the least, for this opinion. The dispersion was 
completed at the Tower of Babel, when the pos- 
terity of Ham, who, under the direction of Ximrod 
had wrested the plains of Babylon from the de- 
scendants of Shem, were scattered abroad upon 
the face of the whole earth. The beginning of 
Kimrod's kingdom was Babel. And the Bible in- 



CIVIL LIBERRY. 105 

forms us what a despot he was 5 everywhere insti- 
gating war and bloodshed, laying the nations under 
tribute, and transmitting his despotic and warhke 
power from generation to generation, till the Egyp- 
tians drove his descendants into Canaan and Joshua 
drove them into Greece. Ninus inherited the 
tyranny of his father 5 and the whole history of 
the Assyrian empire from the days of Ninus to its 
overthrow by the Babylonians and the Medes, is a 
history of the most absolute despotism. Such also 
was the character of the Babylonian empire from 
the revolt of Nebopolassar to its destruction by 
Cyrus. Egypt and Persia also were equally stran- 
gers to civil hberty. And with some partial re- 
strictions, by which the authority of the former 
was controlled by established customs, and that of 
the latter by the senate, such was the character 
of imperial Greece and Rome. The republics 
of Greece and Rome were comparatively free ; 
though their freedom was far from being founded 
upon a correct understanding of the rights of man. 
I do not know that there is in antiquity a single 
example of a free state, in which the people have 
exerted any due influence upon the government 
until you come to the Jewish republic. When 1 
cast my eyes over the earth at the present day, I 
cannot fix them on a single Pagan, Mahomedan, 
or Antichristian country, where the genius of 
liberty has a dwelling place 5 she may at times 
have hovered over them, like the dove over the 



106 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

waste of waters, but like her, lias found no rest for 
the sole of her foot. 

The Bible is the great protector and guardian 
of the liberties of men. It is the true basis, and 
the only basis of the temple of freedom. It is the 
necessary result of an acquaintance with the word 
of God that a people should be restive under a 
tyrants yoke, and sooner or later break from their 
chains. It is a maxim in the Romish Church, 
that " ignorance is the mother of devotion 5" but 
the true origin of this aphorism is, that ignorance 
rivets the chains of civil as well as ecclesiastical 
power. It were impossible for a people to be 
ignorant of their own rights, or the responsi- 
bilities of their rulers, who are deeply and honestly 
imbued with the principles of the Bible. Where 
the Bible forms public opinion, a nation must be 
free. Who does not see that such a tyrant as 
Nero, or Caligula; or such a wretch as Henry 
VIII. of England, or Charles IX. of France, or 
Julius II. or Alexander IV. would not be tolerated 
in Protestant Christendom for an hour ? The rea- 
son is, men read and understand the Bible. Moral 
and religious knowledge is everywhere circulated, 
and men can no more submit to chains in a Chris- 
tian land, than they can be suffocated, while they 
live and breathe a vital atmosphere. 

Considering the age of the world in which the 
Jewish code was established, and how little the 
doctrine of personal rights was understood in tha 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 107 

world generally, is it not somewhat remarkable 
that the laws of Moses were so decidedly the 
friend of civil liberty ? I have taken some pains 
to examine some of the most instructive writers, 
for the purpose of ascertaining whether the beau- 
ideal of a free government were not reahzed in 
the Hebrew State. And I confess I have been 
not a httle delighted and surprised. I know not 
where to look for any single work which is so full 
of the great principles of political wisdom as the 
laws of Moses and the history of the Kings of 
Judah and Israel. There is not to my knowledge 
any where to be found such abundant and effective 
illustrations of these great principles, as are found 
in the laws and history of this people. Notwith- 
standing their recent servitude to a foreign and des- 
potic prince, and though just entering upon a tedious 
pilgrimage in the deserts of Arabia, they adopted 
a regular form of government. It was a govern- 
ment which lasted almost half a century before 
they came to their promised land 5 and which, when 
they were ultimately settled in that land, remained 
for a scries of years undisturbed, and enabled them 
to maintain their independence throughout all the 
varieties of their national history. And yet, with 
the exception of the writ of habeas corpus^ a 
privilege not required under their government, bc- 
caus(i it did not allow of imprisonment, I do not 
know that there is a single feature of a free State, 
but is here dislinctly devc^lopc^d. They wcm'c a 



108 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

people remarkably well acquainted with their 
rights and form of government. One reason, no 
doubt, why God left them wandering forty years 
in the desert of Arabia, was that the various parts 
of their poHtical machinery might be arranged 
and adjusted, and well understood among them- 
selves, before they took possession of the promised 
land. And it was thus arranged and understood, 
and proved itself not less adapted to their pros- 
perity, than their adversity ; to their final settle- 
ment in Palestine, than their pilgrimage in the 
wilderness. Though rich in resources, and power- 
ful in arms, they were free. Though holding, as 
they did in the time of David and Solomon, the 
balance of power between the two great monarch 
ies of Egypt and Assyria, and giving law to all 
the petty kingdoms between the Euphrates and 
the Mediterranean, they remained a free people. 
They were free in choosing their own form of go 
vernment; free in the enaction of their laws; 
free in that "the laws governed, and not men." 
The superior excellence of the Mosaic institu- 
tions, when compared with the institutions of the 
most celebrated pagan nations, is strikingly dis- 
played in their attachment to the cause of free- 
dom. They were founded on a sound knowledge 
of human nature, and such as the art and science 
of government rest upon every where. There 
was every security for the preservation of social 
order which could be imparted on the one hand 



nVlL LIBERTY. 109 

by a veneration for power, and on the other by a 
high sense of personal independence and indivi- 
dual rights* 

The form of government established by Moses 
was republican *y though, with salutary restric- 
tions, the people were at liberty to change it when 
they desired. It consisted of twelve great tribes ; 
each under its own leader constituting a little 
commonwealth, while all were united in one great 
republic. They were a nation of confederated 
states, bound together for the purposes of defence 
and conquest. Their government was more nearly 
assimilated to that of the Cantons of Switzerland, 
and the Confederated States of our own Union, 
than any other government. It bore some resem- 
blance to that of the ancient Gauls, or Celtse 5 and 
still more to that of the ancient Britons, except 
that the Gauls and Britons had no federative 
bond. During the commonwealth, they chose 
and accepted God as their King, and he chose 
and declared them his peculiar people. When 
their form of government was changed, it was at 
their own request and solicitation. From a re- 
public, it became an elective, limited monarchy } 
under which their kings, whether appointed by 
God, or hereditary, did not enter upon the func- 
tions of their office until they were accepted and 
crowned by the peoples, and by a sworn capitula- 
tion were restricted in their prerogative. Their 
laws, though originating for the most part with 
God, were approved by themselves. The nation, 
10 



110 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

in other words, adopted their own laws. Nor is 
there an instance on record, to the best of my 
knowledge, in which their laws were not proposed 
to the representatives of the people, and received 
their unanimous consent. On the one hand, 
» there were some strong democratic tendencies in 
their government, and in the other some strong 
tendencies to despotism ; but both under so many 
checiis and balances, that never was nation better 
acquainted with their public interests, and rarely 
have the rights and duties of rulers and subjects 
been more definitely prescribed, or life, liberty and 
property more secure. 

The liberties of a people depend much on the 
proper distribution of landed property. The He- 
brew government was founded on an equal agra- 
rian law. Unlike the agrarian law of Lycurgus, 
which debased the Spartans to a state of semi-bar- 
barism, and ultimately committed the culture of 
their lands to their slaves ; and equally unhke the 
feudal system of the middle ages, which has given 
shape and colouring to all the political and civil 
institutions of modern Europe 5 it made provision 
for the support of 600,000 yeomanry, with from 
six to twenty-five acres of land each, which they 
held independant of all temporal superiors, and 
which they might not alienate, but on the condi- 
tion of their reverting to the families which origi- 
nally possessed them, every fiftieth year.* Such 



"^ Graves' Lectures on the Pentateuch. 



CIVIL LIBERTY. Ill 

were the immunities of the mass of the Hebrew 
population 5 not of its lords, nor its vassals, but its 
medium population. There were the poor beneath 
them, and men of superior rank and property 
above them, — the princes of their tribes and the 
heads of their thousands. But there was no de- 
graded peasantry and no hereditary noblesse. 
And notwithstanding all that has been said of the 
pre-eminence of one poor, dependant tribe — a tribe 
that were disqualified from becoming the proprie- 
tors of a single foot of landed property — never 
was there less of a proud aristocracy in any form 
to trample on the rights of the poor, or, until a 
late period of their kingdom, of a merciless oppres- 
sion of the lower orders of the people. No nobler 
people, no better organized community ever existed, 
than the ancient Hebrews. Inured to honourable 
industry — wealthy, but without ostentatious mag- 
nificence — ready at a moments call to resist every 
attack upon their country^s freedom — with an 
honest pride exulting in their revered ancestry — 
they may well be regarded, during the more auspi- 
cious periods of their history, as the noblest speci- 
men of a free and independant nation. The proud 
descendant of Abraham was not always what he 
is now. " Many that are first shall be last, and 
many that are last shall be first." We may con- 
ceive of the sadness and despondency with which 
some lineal son of the ancient family of God, srated 
by the rivers of some modern Babylon, would <\\- 
claim, " how shall I sing the Lord's song in a strange 



112 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

land !" And we may easily conceive of the high 
enthusiasm that would enkindle in his bosom as he 
turns his thoughts in prospect toward the hills of 
his own loved Palestine, and anticipates the time 
when his people shall be no longer a hissing and a 
by-word among the nations. How would his eye 
kindle, as by the Hght of prophecy he beholds the 
lion of the tribe of Judah displace the crescent 
that even now waves over the ruined Temple, and 
the mosque of Omar fall before the man who in 
the visions of God had a " line of flax and a mea 
suring reed in his hand," to rebuild the walls that 
are once more to contain the emblems of the 
divine presence and glory ! How would his heart 
beat with hope as such visions passed before him, 
and taking his harp from the willows, with what 
amotions would he again sing, " The Lord is mj 
strength and song, and he is become my salvation ; 
he is my God, and I will prepare him an habita- 
tion ; my fathers God, and I will exalt him." 

"Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty." The love of hberty thus expressed in 
the Old Testament is still more clearly indicated 
by the Christian dispensation. One of the most 
unfounded objections to Christianity that ever 
originated with designing, or was believed by 
foolish men, is that it is adapted to subject the 
many to the few. So far from this, it is the only 
religion which honestly and effectually consults 
the interests of men for time, as well as eternity. 
It is the only instrument by which the poor can 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 113 

defend their rights and resist the encroachments 
of the proud and oppressive. The whole spirit 
and genius of Christianity are everywhere friendly 
to freedom. It teaches us that men of every tribe, 
language, chme, and colour are the creatures of 
God. It announces that the great Creator " hath 
made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on 
the face of the earth." It pronounces the inci- 
dental, and circumstantial, and temporary distinc- 
tions between men, as of minor consequence, and 
of no account whatever, when compared with the 
great points of simihtude which result from their 
common origin, their common depravity, their 
common suffering, common dependance, and com- 
mon responsibihties. 

It is remarked of the divine Founder of the 
Christian faith, that the " common people heard 
him gladly." He was himself one of the common 
people. He was raised from an obscure family in 
Israel, and was from the humbler walks of hfe. 
All his sympathies were with the common people. 
He knew the heart of the suffering and oppressed, 
and was touched with the feeling of their infirmi- 
ties. Of the same character were his Apostles, 
and the principal teachers of his religion. Ani? of 
the same character do we find all their doctrines 
and precepts. " To the poor the gospel is preach- 
ed. In Christ Jesus, there is neither Greek nor 
Jew, harbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free." 
"Tlie cultivated heathen," says Tholuck, " wero 
offended at Christianity precisely for this reason, 
10* 



114 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

that the higher classes could no longer have pre- 
cedence of the common people."* We have very 
justly regarded the Kingdom of Spain, as furnish- 
ing no very enviable exhibition of civil liberty. 
But notwithstanding all the corruptions of Christi- 
anity in that Papal Kingdom, evidence is not 
wanting, that it exerted some influence at least in 
restraining arbritrary power. In the last hours of 
the distinguished dueen Isabella, a recent and ac- 
complished historian of our own country informs 
us, that " she expressed her doubts as to the legali- 
ty of the revenue of the alcavalas^ constituting the 
principal income of the crown. She directed a 
commission to ascertain whether it were originally 
intended to be perpetual, and if this were done 
with the free consent of the people : enjoining her 
heirs in that event, to collect the tax so that it 
should press least heavily on her subjects. Should 
it be found otherwise, however, she directs that 
the legislature be summoned to devise measures 
for supplying the w ants of the crow^n — measures 
depending for their validity on the good pleasure 
of the subjects of the realmJ"^ 

Never, with the Bible in our hands, can we 
deny rights to another, which under the same cir- 
cumstances we would claim for ourselves. "Chris- 
tianity," says Montesquieu, " is a stranger to despotic 



* Biblical Repository. Vol. II. 

I Prescot's Hist, of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella* 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 115 

power." "The religion," says De Tocqueville, 
"which declares that all are equal in the sight of 
God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citi- 
zens are equal in the eye of the law." Elsewhere, 
this elegant and instructive writer remarks, " Re- 
ligion is the companion of liberty in all its battles 
and all its conflicts ; the cradle of its infancy and 
the divine source of its claims." Nor is it any un- 
usual thing for the friends of liberty in France to 
speak in terms of enthusiastic commendation of 
the republicanism of the Scriptures. Even the 
Abbe de la Mennais, whom a late writer distin- 
guishes as one of the most powerful minds in 
Europe, little as he regards Christianity as a reve- 
lation from God, familarly speaks of its Author as 
the Great Republican of his age. Our distin- 
guished countryman, the late Dewitt Clinton, in a 
highly polished address before the New York Al- 
pha of the Phi Beta Kappa, writes the following 
thoughts which are so truly worthy of his charac- 
ter as a statesman, and his creed as a believer in 
divine revelation. " Christianity is in its essence, 
its doctrines, and its forms, republican. It teaches 
our descent from a common pair 5 it inculcates 
the natural equality of mankind ; and it points to 
our origin and our end, to our nativity and our 
graves, and to our inmiortal destinies, as illustra- 
tions of this impressive truth." And what is more 
to our purpose, considering the prepossessions 
which the writer has so often avowed ai^ainst the 
religion of the New Testament, the author of 



116 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

Travels^ in England^ France^ Spain and the 
Barhary States^ pays the following unreluctant 
homage to the beneficial influence which Christi- 
anity exerts upon civil liberty. After landing in 
France fi'om the last named country, he remarks, 
" I could breathe freely, speak freely, I no longer 
viewed my fellow men with distrust, and I thanked 
God that I was in a Christian land."* 

And what is the language of facts ? Whence, 
w^ith the exception of slavery in the United States, 
an evil brought into the country originally under 
the authority of the British government, and con- 
tinued in defiance of all the remonstrances of our 
ancestors, whence is that equality of condition 
which is so indicative of liberty, so much more 
complete in Christian countries, than in any other 
part of the world ? Who but a Christian poet has 
ever sung, 

" 'Tis Liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume ; 
And we are weeds without it ?" 

Every where the men whose minds have been im- 
bued with the light and spirit of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, have been the devoted friends of civil 
liberty. Such were the Lollards in England, the 
adherents of Luther in Germany, and of John 
Knox in Scotland. Such was Holland, when her 



* Travels in England, France, Spain and the Barbary States, 
by Mordecai M. Noah. 



CIVIL LIBERTY. Il7 

sturdy republican virtues, the learning and piety 
of her clergy, and the excellence of her moral and 
literary institutions spread her fame throughout 
the earth. Such was Switzerland, not only during 
those periods when she was most free, but those 
in which she struggled, however unsuccessfully, 
for her freedom. Such were the protestant non- 
conformists from the days of the Reformation to 
the death of Queen Elizabeth. Such were the 
Presbyterians in the days of the first Charles. 
Such were others, who, though in some respects 
misguided men, laid their hands upon the Bible, 
and boldly proclaimed, that " resistance to tyrants 
is obedience to God." Such were those noble 
men, the Huguenots of New York and New Jer- 
sey, as well as others of their suffering companions, 
who fled from France, and sealed their testimony 
with their blood, on the fatal revocation of the 
edict of Nantz. Such also were the Puritans of 
New England, who through the favour of Divine 
Providence, opposed, though not a bolder, a more 
successful resistance to despotic power. With the 
courage of heroes and the zeal of martyrs, they 
struggled for, and obtained the charter of liberty 
now enjoyed by the British nation. Even the his- 
torian, Hume, whose prepossessions all lay on the 
side of absolute monarchy, and who was sufficient- 
ly prejudiced against the Bible, was constrained 
to the confession, " that the precious spark of li- 
berty had been kindled and was preserved by the 
Puritans alone^ and that it was to this sect thQ 



118 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

English owe the whole freedom of their constitu- 
tion." It has been common with a certain class 
of writers to speak evil of these excellent men. 
Those who would not do this ignorantly, should 
acquaint themselves with their character as it is 
exhibited in Brodies' British Empire, from the 
accession of Charles I. to the Restoration ; in 
Vaughn's Stuart Dynasty ^ in Godwin's History of 
the Commonwealth, and in Bishop Burnet's His- 
tory of his own times. The general character of 
the dissenters of the independent denominations 
in England also verifies the scope and spirit of 
these remarks. On the celebrated motion in the 
House of Lords, for inquiry into the cause of the 
death of the devoted missionary. Smith, in one of 
the West India Islands, Lord Brougham spoke of 
the Independents as a '' body of men to be held in 
lasting veneration for the unshaken fortitude with 
which, in all times, they have maintained their at- 
tachment to civil liberty ; men, to whose ancestors 
EDo;land will ever acknowledge a boundless debt 
of gratitude, as long as freedom is prized among 
us. For they, I fearlessly confess it, they, with 
whatever ridicule some may visit their excesses, or 
with whatever blame others, they, with the zeal 
of martyrs, the purity of early Christians, the skill 
and courage of the most renowned warriors, ob- 
tained for England the free constitution she now 
enjoys." 

It is worthy of remark, that the Bible recog- 
nizes and maintains the only principle on which it 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 119 

is possible for a nation ever to enjoy the blessings 
of civil liberty. That principle is, that all that is 
valuable in the institutions of civil hberty rests on 
the character which the people sustain as citizens. 
The fear of God is the foundation of political free- 
dom. 

" He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, 
And all are slaves beside." 

Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impos- 
sible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be 
a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget 
God, that tyrants forge their chains. The princi- 
ples of liberty and the principles of the Bible are 
most exactly coincident. A vitiated state of mo- 
rals, a corrupted pubHc conscience is incompatible 
with freedom. Nothinnf short of the stronor influ- 
ence of that system of truth which God has re- 
vealed from heaven is competent so to guide, mode- 
rate, and preserve the balance between the con- 
flicting interests and passions of men, as to prcj)are 
them for the blessings of free government. Hol- 
land was free, so long as she was virtuous. She 
was a flourishing republic, she produced great and 
enlightened statesmen, until she became corrupt, 
and infidelity spoiled her of her glory. France 
would have become free on the accession of her 
present citizen king, but for the radical deficiency 
in her moral virtue. When the distinguished Ter- 
rier, who succeeded La Fayette in the oflice of 
prime minister to Louis Philippe, was on his bed 



i2d ClVlL LIBERTY. 

of death, he exclaimed with great emphasis and 
fervour. La France doit avoir une religion! 
" France must have religion." Liberty cannot exist 
without morality, nor morality without the religion 
of the Bible. It is a nation's love of law, its love 
of wise and benevolent institutions, its attachment 
to the public weal, its peaceful and benevolent spi- 
rit, its love of virtue, and these alone that can make 
it free. Take these away and there must be tyrants 
in their place. I hold no axiom more true or more 
important than this, that man must be governed 
by moral truth, or despotic power. As soon as a 
nation becomes corrupt, her liberties degenerate 
into faction 5 and then nothing short of the strong 
arm of despotism will restrain the passions of men, 
and controul their pride, their selfishness, their love 
of gold, their thirst for domination, and their brutal 
licentiousness. The Bible alone is the source of 
that high-toned moral principle which is necessary 
to all classes, in all their intercourse, for the exer- 
cise of all their rights, and the enjoyment of all their 
privileges. Without it, rulers become tyrants, and 
the people are fitted only for servitude, or anarchy. 
Without it, there is no such thing as an intelhgent, 
lofty, ardent, honourable and disinterested charac- 
ter. Nothing else is capable of combining a nation 
into one great brotherhood — annihilating its divi- 
sions — quenching its hate — destroying its spirit of 
party — bringing all parts with all their jarring inter- 
ests into one great whole, and inscribing on the 
banner, forever sacred to freedom and virtue, E 



CIVIL LIBERRY. 121 

pluribus unum. Nothing else will rightly controul 
its suffrages 5 send up a salutary influence into its 
senate chamber 5 diffuse its power through all ranks 
of office 5 direct learning and laws 5 act on com- 
merce and the arts, and spread that hallowed influ- 
ence through every department of society that shall 
render its liberties perpetual. Statesmen may be 
slow to learn from the Bible 5 but they will find no 
surer guide to political skiU and foresight. The 
common people may be slow to learn from the 
Bible ; but they will no where find their interests 
so watchfully protected, and their liberties defended 
with such abihty and so many counsels of wisdom. 
The designs of ambitious and intriguing men, the 
artifices of demagogues, the usurpations of power, 
the corrupting influence of high places, and the 
punishment of political delusion, all find their pro- 
totype and antidote in the principles, prophecies, 
biography, and history of the Bible. Where may 
a people learn a more affecting lesson, than in the 
succession of weak and wicked princes, from the 
death of Josiah to the destruction of the city and 
temple, and the capture of Zcdckiah, by Nebu- 
chadnezzar ? Read the history of the subtle and 
traitorous Absalom. Bold, valiant, and revenge- 
ful 5 haughty, clocpient and popular, he " stole the 
hearts of the people •," expelled his venerable fa- 
ther from Jerusalem ; and having conciliatinl the 
affections of a misguided and deceived populace, 
became after a short period as much the object 
of their contempt, as he was before the object 
11 



122 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

of their veneration. Were such a monument as 
Absolam's pillar of stones erected over the body 
of every demagogue at the present day, it might 
be a wholesome comment upon the influence the 
Bible exerts upon the principles of civil liberty. 
Read too the history of Jeroboam the son of 
Nebat ; a base idolater, the descendant of a slave, 
a turbulent, ambitious prince, a fugitive from pub- 
lic justice, corrupt and intriguing, raised to su- 
preme power by an unprincipled majority, cor- 
rupting and destroying the people, drying up 
the sources of national wealth, entaiHng poverty 
and abjectness upon the ten tribes to the latest 
generation, and drawing down upon them the 
"wrath of heaven for twenty successive reigns, 
and more than two centuries after his death! 
Contrast also the reign of Solomon with the reign 
of Jeroboam ; the reign of Asa with the reign of 
Ahab 5 the reign of Jehoash with the reign of Je- 
hoahaz •, and you will form a just estimate of good 
rulers, and see what a fearful scourge wicked ru- 
lers are to their subjects. The God of the Bible 
is the king of nations. The Lord is with them 
tohile they are with him. Creation and provi- 
dence are under his controul. With all their in- 
fluences, all their power, all their glory, they are 
tinder him as the Prince of its princes, the Lord of 
its lords, and all subservient to his designs. A 
heathen prince was once constrained to say, that 
" his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his 
kingdom is from generation to generation." His 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 123 

service is freedom 5 alienation from his empire is 
the veriest bondage. 

The land w^e hve in is a Christian land. The 
Bible is here recognized as true ; and in our ow^n 
State, has been solemnly decided as constituting 
a part of the common law^. We shall be a free 
people, only as we remain a Christian people. If 
a low and degraded infidelity should ever succeed 
in its already begun enterprise of sending up from 
the whole face of this land her poisonous exhala- 
tions, and the youth of our country become re- 
gardless of the God of their fathers 5 men in other 
lands who have been watching for our downfall, 
will in a few short years enrole us on the catalogue 
of enslaved nations. You will have a part to act 
on this great theatre, my young friends, when 
older heads shall sleep beneath the clods of the 
valley. Act it like Christian men. Love your 
country, and for your country's sake. Hold those 
in detestation who disturb her peace, and tamper 
with the minds of the young for the purposes of 
office and gain. It will be in vain that infidel poli- 
ticians plot the ruin of this fair land, if her young 
men remain firm to the interests of moral vnlue 
and the Bible. Would that my voice could reach 
the ear of every young man in the land, and an- 
nounce to him, how much his country expects 
from every intelligent friend of the Bible. Tin re 
is no want of effort to corrupt and demoralize llie 
young men of this nation ; and when once this is 
done, they in their turn will become the corrupters 



124 CIVIL LIBERTY. 

and demoralizers of others, until the nation be- 
comes ripened for ruin. The Bible is your pro- 
tection. There is a natural propensity in the 
human mind to lawless indulgence, and to hostility 
to all those systems of human government that are 
based on the word of God. Beware of being car- 
ried down this fatal current. There is nothing 
that may be so safely trusted in the formation of 
your political sentiments and influence, as the 
Bible. I have never known a great poHtical strug- 
gle in a Christian land which was not a great 
moral struggle, and would not have been decided 
in an hour by the appropriate influence of the 
Bible. Here is the danger of this Republic. So 
long as the Bible remains our glory and happi 
ness, our liberties will remain ; but beyond this, 
there is nothing to forbid the fear, that we shall 
gradually become an enslaved nation. 

But I must close, with a single thought more. 
^' If the Son make you free, ye shall be free in- 
deed." Seriously considered, other liberty is an 
imaginary theory — an illusion — a name — a sound. 
You may chant its praises and celebrate its con- 
quests, and yet be slaves. You may deify it, and 
erect to it monuments, and build its altars, and 
pour upon them costly libations, and yet be the 
slaves of sin. But there is a liberty that is worth 
the name. It is that intellectual and moral condi- 
tion of the soul which constitutes her highest ex- 
cellence and glory. It is that spiritual liberty — 
that Christian freedom — that Hberty of mind, and 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 125 

conscience, and heart, which through divine grace 
the soul enjoys, when she breaks the bonds of her 
iniquity and possesses the hberty of the children 
of God. It is to be no longer the servant of sin ; 
no longer the slave of passion 5 no longer in 
bondage to vanity, pride, self and the world 5 but 
to be the loyal and happy subject of the divine 
government, the renovated citizen of the common- 
wealth of Israel, and the servant of that Divine 
Master, whose every requisition is a benefit, whose 
every command is a promise, and to whose service 
every sacrifice becomes a favour, every act of 
self-denial a blessing. Such a man is free — free 
every where; free in solitude — free in the midst 
of the world — free in his abundance — free in his 
poverty — free in life — free in death — always free — 
" free forever, because he is forever with God." 
11* 



LECTURE V. 



THE SCRIPTURES THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGIOUS 
LIBERTY AND THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 



Having at our last opportunity expressed a few 
thoughts in relation to the influence of the Bible 
upon civil liberty and human governments, I pro- 
pose to devote the present lecture to a considera- 
tion of the influence it exerts upon religious liberty 
and the rights of conscience. The subject is one 
of no common magnitude. Who, had he no other 
alternative, w^ould not cheerfully consent to be- 
come the vassal of the most despotic government 
on the earth, where the rights of conscience were 
respected, than the citizen of the freest republic, 
where these rights are denied ? Of all human 
rights, the rights of conscience are the most sacred 
and inviolate. Civil liberty relates to things seen 
and temporal, religious liberty to things unseen 
and eternal ; civil liberty relates to the body, reli- 
gious liberty to the soul ; and which may be the 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, ETC. 127 

more readily dispensed with, no honest and virtu- 
ous mind can be long in deciding. 

By religious liberty, I mean the right of every 
man to adopt and enjoy whatever opinions he 
chooses on rehgious subjects, and to worship the 
Supreme Being according to the dictates of his 
own conscience, without any obstruction from the 
law of the land. Religious toleration is the 
allowance of religious opinions and modes of 
worship, when different from those established by 
law. Religious liberty disclaims all right of law 
to oontrol men in their opinions and worship. Re- 
ligious toleration implies the existence and the 
modified exercise of power in such control j reli- 
gious liberty implies that no such power exists, 
and none such is assumed. The most perfect re- 
ligious liberty exists in that community, where there 
is no such thing as toleration, because there is no 
need of it. None desires, or can conceive of a 
greater degree of religious liberty than that which 
exists under a government, where one man, and 
one religious denomination, has as good a right as 
another, to the free and unobstructed enjoyment 
of its creed and worship. 

If we mistake not, this greatest and most in- 
alienable of all human rights is one of the last that 
has been rcspcicted by civil governments, and has 
found a refuge; only in the well-defined principles 
and milfl auspices of the Christian disj)ensati()n. 
On how many a page of pagan iiistory, do you 
find the melancholy fact recorded of men who 



128 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

were condemned to the hemlock and the flames, 
because they would not worship at the shrine of 
idoi gods ? The decree of the proud Nebuchad- 
nezzar, that ^' whosoever falleth not down and 
worshippeth the golden image that he had set up, 
should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery 
furnace," was an ancient and very common mode 
of punishment among the oriental nations, inflict- 
ed on those who would not worship their idols. 
Mountains of flame have ascended to heaven, and 
rivers of blood have been poured upon the earth, 
as offerings on the altar of a malignant, or mis 
guided intolerance. From the time that Antio- 
chus laid waste the Holy Land, and depopulated 
the city of Jerusalem, to the destruction of the 
infai Is of Bethlehem by Herod; from the resur- 
rection of the Saviour, to the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Titus ; from the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, to the accession of Contantine to the throne 
of the Roman empire 5 the prediction has been 
most fearfully fulfilled, " There was war in hea- 
ven : 3Iichael and his angels fought, and the dragon 
fought, and his angels," 

Tne hmits of a single lecture do not allow me 
to speak at length of the spirit of intolerance, 
which has in various ages of the world been the 
fruitful source of so much misery and crime. Not 
volumes merely, but libraries have been written 
without exhausting the mournful theme. Jews, Ma- 
hometans, Christians and pagans have all, though 
not always with the same ardour and phrensy, 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 129 

been to a greater or less degree, involved iii this 
miserable warfare. 

Intolerance tow^ard the Christian faith was early 
expressed by the Jews, at the very birth of Chris- 
tianity. As a nation, they were distinguished for 
their spiritual pride and bigotry, and regarded 
other nations with a haughty superciliousness, 
which easily matured to malignity and persecu- 
tion. Though at the time when our blessed Lord 
appeared in the flesh, Judaism was in the last 
stages of decay ; though it had the form of godli- 
ness, and was destitute of its power, and had in- 
deed become a sort of practical infidelity ; it sum- 
moned and collected all its remaining vigour to 
oppose the gospel of the Son of God. Though it 
was split up into a great variety of sects and par- 
ties ; yet fearful of the influence of Christianity, 
jealous of its power, trembling for their own pre- 
rogative, the Jewish priests and rulers lost no op- 
portunity of indulging themselves, not only in the 
extremes of contumely and abuse against the 
Christians, but did not hesitate to persecute them 
to the death. The Pharisees were formalists ; the 
Saducees were infidels 5 the Essenes were enthu- 
siasts and mystics — deeply imbued with the Phi- 
losophy of the Platonic School, and regarding even 
their own law as a mere allegorical system of mys- 
terious truths. 13ut like Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
all these jarring sects forgot their mutual and 
minor alienations in ihv'ir absorbing <Mnnity to the 
gospel of Ciirist. Many of them indeed, like tho 



130 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

early disciples, and Saul of Tarsus, and others on 
the day of Pentecost, saw the insufficiency of their 
own religion, felt the need of a surer guide, and 
became the followers of Christ 5 but the mass ot 
the nation were violent and uncompromising in 
their hostility to the Christian faith. They pursu- 
ed the infant Saviour from his cradle to Egypt, 
from Egypt to Nazareth, and from Nazareth to 
the cross. After having satiated their malignity 
upon him, they directed it in all its infuriate mad- 
ness against his disciples. Stephen, James the 
son of Zebedee, and James the just, who presided 
over the Church at Jerusalem, were among the 
early victims of their rage. Sometimes their vio* 
leiice was expressed in threatening ; sometimes in 
rash and headlong counsels ; sometimes in the im- 
prisonment of the Christians 5 and sometimes in 
stripes and death. Nor were their persecutions 
limited to Palestine. Wherever they were scat- 
tered throughout the Roman provinces, they be- 
came the instigators of those feuds among the 
populace, and that violence of the magistracy 
which destroyed so many of the harmless followers 
of Christ.^ The early Christians had no more 
bitter enemies than the Jews. From the highest 
seat of power in Jerusalem, down to the lowest 
pub'ican who sat at the receipt of custom, the 
embodied efforts of the nation, both in the Holy 



* Vide, Mosheim's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 131 

land and out of it, were enlisted against Christi- 
anity. There was this semblance of apology/ for 
the Jews. The God of Abraham had called them 
out from among the nations with the view of dis- 
sociating them from all the varieties and forms of 
pagan idolatry, and until the coming of the Mes- 
siah, of preserving among them the only remnant 
of the true religion on the earth. They were early 
taught by God himself to regard all other nations 
with suspicion ; to have no intercourse with them ; 
and to prohibit their residence among them until 
they had first renounced their paganism, and be- 
come proselytes to the faith and worship of the 
true God. It is a lame apology ; but like one of 
their own misguided countrymen, they often " did it 
ignorantly and in unbelief" They were strongly 
attached to their own national, religious peculiari- 
ties; and yet nothing could be more contrary to 
the genius of their own religion, than the pride, 
envy and malignity, with which they arrayed those 
peculiarities against Christianity. Nothing could 
be more contrary to the light of their own symbols, 
prophecies, and law. Nothing could be more 
contrary to the overwhelming testimony that Jesus 
was the Son of God. And yet they have ever 
been an intolcTant people, and have extended their 
intolerance not less to their own countrymen, who 
ren()un(^(Ml the; .Tc^wish religion, than to strangers. 
WherevcT they have Ixmmi in pow(M', they have 
always b(»en an intolerant p(M)ple. When Morde- 
cai was prime minister at the l*<Msian Court uniler 



132 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, " many of 
the people of the land became Jews, because the 
fear of the Jews came upon them." The Jews 
had authority and they exercised it so effectually, 
that the Persians professed Judaism through fear. 
We know too what an. iron sceptre their rulers 
swayed, and under what a reign of terror the na- 
tion groaned in subsequent ages. There was no 
such thing as religious liberty. If any man con- 
fessed Christ, he '' was put out of the synagogue ," 
he was pronounced an outlaw 5 his property w^as 
confiscated 5 he was denied all the charities of life ; 
his person was put beyond the protection of the 
government 5 and the man that killed him was 
thought to have done God service. 

If from the Jews, we turn to the Mahomedans, 
we have the same melancholy picture. Like a 
furious torrent, the religion of the false prophet 
laid waste Asia, Africa, and a great part of Europe. 
It was introduced at a period of the world, when 
the corruptions of Christianity and the divisions 
throughout Christendom invited the enterprise of 
some bold, and ardent mind, and when the cus- 
toms and passions of men, and the circumstances 
of the times were easily made subservient to such 
a design. The spirit of intolerance also which 
existed among the Christians proved a favourable 
event for the advancement of Mahometanism, 
Justinian had previously commenced his persecu- 
tions ; he had destroyed the Samaritans in Pales- 
tine ; and their posterity probably embraced the 



I 

ii 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 133 

new religion out of hatred to the Christians, and 
in consequence of the severe edicts pubHshed 
against them by the Roman Emperors. Tlie Ro- 
man and Persian monarchies were also on the de- 
cline 5 and Mahomet had discernment enough to 
turn all these favourable opportunities to his own 
advantage. It is scarcely necessary to say, that 
Mahomet boldly professed to convert the nations 
by the sword. It was one of the main pillars of 
his system, that paradise was the reward of extir- 
pating those who would not become his followers. 
It was his maxim, that " the sword is the key of 
heaven and of hell." The Jews were more the 
objects of his hatred than any other sect. He 
utterly destroyed them in Arabia, confiscated their 
property, and subjected them to tortures. He 
would not condescend to allow them to become 
his followers, and gave testimony of the hatred he 
bore them in his last hours. " May God curse the 
Jews," said he, " for they have made Temples of 
the sepulchres of their prophets !" With this ex- 
ception, the alternative he offered to his enemies 
was, to acknowledge the true God and his i)rophet5 
tribute, or death. And with this alternative, he 
subdued a great part of the world. His first con- 
quests were in Arabia, Persia and Syria. Subse- 
quently his successors subdued Egypt and Africa, 
from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean. Aftc^- the 
Saracens became Mahometans, they ovc rran and 
desolated tlu; Roman empire, and made the most 
fearful devastation of the Oriental Churches. Not 
V2 



134 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

satisfied with these conquests, they penetrated into 
Spain and France 5 subsequently attached the 
Turks to their standard, became masters of the 
fairest portions of Europe, and planted the crescent 
on the walls of Constantinople. The mildest fea- 
ture in the rehgion of Mahomet was, that he did 
not deny that the followers of any religion might 
be saved, if their actions were virtuous. And yet 
strange to say, wherever he came in contact with 
men, he recognized no rights of conscience, no 
degree of religious liberty. Wherever his followers 
went, it was Ismalism, tribute, or death.* 

The pagan world too has fiercely set itself 
against the Lord and against his anointed. With 
few exceptions, the pagan nations cannot be 
said to have expressed any great degree of 
intolerance toward one another. They have 
been bitter persecutors of the religion of the 
Old and New Testaments, but not often per 
ecutors of paganism itself. Though plunged in 
the grossest superstition, and though almost 
every nation had its own peculiar deities 5 this 
variety of gods and religions was rarely the source 
even of division or animosity. Dr. Mosheim ob- 
fierves, that the Egyptians are an exception to this 
remark 5 while at the same time he confesses, that 
" the Egyptian wars, waged to avenge their gods, 
cannot properly be called religious wars, not being 



* Vide. Sale's Koran — ^Picart's Ceremonies, and Herbelot's 
Biblioth. Orient. 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 135 

undertaken either to propagate, or to suppress any 
one form of religion." The Roman empire, in 
the days of her pagan princes, became drunk 
with the blood of Christendom. Before the close 
of the first century, the power of the gospel was 
felt throughout that vast empire. But its suc- 
cesses only roused the dormant hostility of its 
foes. After the demolition of the Jewish State by 
Vespasian, a series of persecutions against Chris- 
tianity was commenced, beginning under Nero, in 
the thirty-first year of the Christian era, and ex- 
tending to the reign of Dioclesian, including about 
three centuries of as bitter suffering and cruelty as 
men were ever called to endure. The Christian 
religion was deemed a "detestable superstition,'' 
and the Christian name contemptible to a proverb. 
Under the reign of Nero, no class of men were 
considered more the enemies of mankind than the 
Christians 5 and notwithstanding the purity and 
benevolence of their character, they incurred the 
hatred of the pagan world, were obnoxious to its 
fury, torn by wild beasts, consumed by fire, and in 
such multitudes that the streets of Rome, night 
after night, were illuminated by the fearful contla- 
grations. In the latter part of the reign of Domi- 
tian, who succeeded to the empire in the year 
eighty-one, all the horrors of Nero's persecution 
were renewed. Under Trajan, the persev(Ting 
profession of Christianity was by law a capital 
off('nce. It was by his order, that Ignatius the 
bishop of Antioch was carried a prisoner from that 



136 RELIGlOrs LIBERTY AND 

city to Rome, and thrown to the wild beasts in the 
amphitheatre. After Trajan, Marcus Antoninus, 
though a prince so universally popular that the 
gratitude of Rome at his death enrolled him among 
the gods, became the implacable enemy of Chris- 
tianity, subjected its disciples to torture, and put to 
death whole churches. It was under his reign that 
Justin Martyr, Poly carp, the martyrs of Lyons and 
Vienne, became victims of the ghastly tortures and 
bloody animosity of the pagans. After him, tor- 
rents of blood were shed by Severus, in Africa and 
Egypt 5 and many a Christian female, like those 
noble women Felicitas and Perpetua, was stripped, 
scourged and thrown to the wild beasts, exclaim- 
ing, as the latter did to her weeping friends, " Con- 
tinue firm in the faith, love one another, and be not 
offended at our sufferings !" After him, the spirit 
of persecution broke out in all its horrors under 
Decius, whose cruel and terrible edicts were exe- 
cuted with a variety and intenseness of newly in 
vented suffering. The successor of Decius was 
Gallus, whose short reign was distinguished by such 
severity of persecutions and such a collection of 
human miseries, that Cyprian, the bishop of Car- 
thage, himself a martyr to the Christian faith, 
thought that the reign of Antichrist was come, and 
the final judgment near at hand. During the early 
part of the reign of Valerian, the church found in 
him a friend and protector ; but after a short truce 
of three years, as one of the most memorable in- 
stances of the instability of the human character, 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 137 

he commenced a deadly persecution. After Vale- 
rian, a general persecution, instigated by the pagan 
priests, broke out under the reign of Dioclesian, 
who demolished the temples of the Christians, 
burned their sacred books, deprived them of all civil 
rights and honours, and consigned them to torture 
and flames. This persecution raged against all 
sorts of men who bore the Christian name ; and 
with the exception of France, pervaded the whole 
Roman world. As evidence of the severity of this 
persecution, a coin was struck under the reign of 
this detestable persecutor, with this inscriyjtion, 
"Nomine Christianorum delete" — The Christian 
name extinguished.* Thus was this vast pagan 
empire, this colossal power, extending itself from 
the straits of Gibraltar to the Caspian sea, cover- 
ing all Europe, and having its territories even in 
Africa and the south of Britain, combined almost 
as with the counsels and heart of one man, against 
the gospel of Christ. All ranks and conditions of 
men seemed bent on its destruction — emperors 
trembling for their crowns, priests for their gold, 
philosophers for their systems, and the common 
people, the more terrible for their ignorance and 
superstitions. It was indeed a dark day to the 
church. One universal cry of persecution and 
death might have been heard from Jerusalem to 
F.phesus, from J*i|)hesus to Rome, from Rome to 
ihe provinces of Caul. 



' Vide Moshcim, Milnor and Lardner. 



138 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

It were devoutly to be wished that we could say 
with truth, that the Christian Church were herself 
pure from the spirit of intolerance, and the blood 
of persecution. It is a most melancholy retrospect 
to look back upon the slow progress of religious 
liberty, even in the visible Church of God. The 
world has no where seen greater evidences of the 
imperfection of men, of the blindness of the hu- 
man heart, of the dangers of an excited state of 
mind in religious controversies, and of the influ- 
ence of the spirit of the age and times in which 
men live, than in the tardy growth of religious 
liberty even under the light of Christian truth. It 
is indeed a melancholy retrospect to look back 
upon the very slow progress of religious toleration 
in our world. The principles of religious liberty 
seem to have been understood by few of any reli- 
gious denomination, until a very late period. The 
human mind seems to have been enveloped in an 
unaccountable hallucination on this plain subject ^ 
and ages and men, otherwise distinguished for 
discretion, for piety, and even for moral gran- 
deur, have been scarcely less distinguished for an 
intolerance and bigotry utterly at war with the 
spirit of Christianity, and a lasting reproach to the 
Christian name. Not a little watchfulness is ne- 
cessary, even on the part of the best of men, be- 
fore they will cultivate a kind spirit toward those 
who dissent from them on subjects so important 
as the various topics of their religious faith. No 
man, and no set of men, know what they will do. 



THE RIGHTT OF CONSCIENCE. 139 

till they have power. The pride of power, and 
power too over the conscience — a pride which, 
while it seems to be associated with the love of 
the truth, is at heart associated with that subtle 
self-complacency which says, " Stand by thyself for 
I am holier than thou ;" a pride which, while it 
conceals its true motives under the pretence of 
contending earnestly for the faitli^ cannot sup- 
press the ostentatious claim of Jehu, " Come see 
my zeal for the Lord," — this is the height, the gid- 
dy height from which intolerance and persecution 
have in every age pronounced the doom of the 
humble followers of the crucified Saviour. Differ- 
ent departments of the visible Church have differed 
widely in their views and conduct in relation to 
this subject. The Romish Church ever has been 
the great enemy of religious liberty. Witness her 
assumption of the civil power, when princes bowed 
at her feet, and received their crowns at her 
hands 5 when nations trembled before her, and 
were anathematized at her pleasure. Witness her 
slaying of the witnesses for the truth throughout 
Germany, France and Britain. Witness her per- 
secutions in the valleys of Piedmont and the rocky 
Alps. Witness the decisions of her councils, the 
developement of her secret plots and conspiracies, 
her open invasions and blood. Witness the histo- 
ry of that dark and sanguinary tribunal, the In- 
quisition. Think of the blood which deluged Bo- 
hemia for thirty years. Think of the massacre in 
the reign of Charles IX. of France, when that 



140 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

heartless prince boasted of having slaughtered 
three hundred thousand protestants. Advert too, 
to tiie intolerance of Louis XIV. and of Queen 
Mary of England, when the prediction was so 
memorably verified, that " It was given to the 
beast to make war with the saints and to overcome 
them." Nor has she reformed in principle from 
that hour to the present 5 but is still the same un- 
changing enemy to religious liberty, and the rights 
of conscience, as the actual influence of her doc- 
trines, her precepts, and her practices every where 
evinces. It was foretold that antichrist should 
"wear down the saints of the most High," and 
that the " scarlet-coloured beast should be drunk- 
en with the blood of the saints." And these pre- 
dictions have been mournfully fulfilled in the op- 
pression, cruelty and intolerance which have ever 
distinguished the Church of Rome. Intolerance 
is the natural and genuine effect of her whole sys- 
tem. " Toleration," says Bossuet, who was far 
from being a violent Romanist, " toleration is not 
a mark of the true Church."^ Uniformly has the 
" Son of perdition" maintained the right to perse- 
cute even unto death, every deviation from his 
creed, and every secession from his family. By 
the solemn decisions of his councils, still unre- 
voked, heresy and schism are " mortal sins." 

But while we say that the Romish Church has 



* Bossuet's History of the Variations of Protestants, 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 141 

been, and still is, the great enemy, with ingenuous 
shame must we confess that the Protestant Church 
has not always been the friend of religious free- 
dom. It was no doubt more the fault of the age, 
than of the man, that Calvin instigated the con- 
demnation of Servetus. But what a comment 
upon the spirit of the age ! The law which con- 
demned heretics to the flames, was retained by the 
Protestant Churches of England during one hun- 
dred and thirty years. And long after Protestant- 
ism was finally established at the revolution in 
Scotland, it framed the solemn League and Cove- 
nant for the extirpation of prelacy by the sword. 
There is no more humbling view than that which 
is presented by this single feature in the history of 
the Church. At one moment she is the persecuted 
of her pagan neighbours 5 at the next, the perse- 
cutor of some of her own family. Scarcely has 
she rest from her external foes, and the wounds 
are staunched that were opened by the sword of 
the unbelieving, than she herself turns it against 
her own children ! And yet, the bitterness of this 
spirit has been allayed by the gospel. The vehe- 
mence of this fierce orthodoxy has been gradually 
subsiding, and its unfeeling, icy rigour melting 
away, in pr()j)()rtion as the Sun of Righteousness 
has been gaining a gradual ascendancy over the 
mind 5 and as the Church has become wiser and 
better, she has become the more consistent friend 
and advocate of religious liberty. 

The principles of religious liberty arc clearly 



142 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

revealed in the New Testament. And what are 
those principles ? They are in the first instance 
that the Holy Scriptures are the only source 
of authority in matters of religion. It is not 
remote antiquity. It is the Bible. It is not 
tradition. It is the Bible. Tradition is an in- 
definite, intangible thing — found any where — 
found no where. It is not the decision of coun- 
cils, nor ecclesiastical statutes. It is the Bible. 
" The word is nigh thee, in thy heart, and in thy 
mouth." 

Another of these principles is, that the Bible 
secures to every man the undeniable and invio- 
lable right of private judgment in all matters of 
relig lous faith and duty. This was the doctrine 
of the Great Reformation 5 this is the doctrine of 
the New Testament. That sacred Book, does not 
more clearly reveal the obligations to faith and 
obedience, than it asserts the right of individual 
thought and opinion founded on the principle of in- 
dividual, personal responsibility. This the Church 
of Rome denies, and the Scriptures affirm. On 
this point, they have been, and still are at issue. 
On this point also the Church of God has, from 
age to age, been at issue with civil governments, 
instigated as they have been by ecclesiastical 
establishments, to interpose the power of the secu- 
lar arm to secure uniformity in belief and modes 
of worship. But what is more evident from the 
Nev/ Testament, than that men are, in this respect, 
responsible not to any secular tribunal, but to God 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 143 

alone ; that the Bible is the only infallible standard, 
and the Author of the Bible the only Judge ? The 
Scriptures commend those, who, with a noble in- 
dependance of thought and Berean character, 
brought even the instructions of inspired apostles 
to the unerring authority of God's holy word. 
They invite men to read and hear for themselves ; 
humbly and prayerfully to examine every religious 
subject, and employ all their powers in investigat- 
ing the truth 5 and when they have done so, 
solemnly, and in the fear of God, to form tlieir 
own opinions. They require them to form, not a 
wrong judgment, but a right one, and make them 
responsible to the Searcher of hearts for the judg- 
ment they form. God gives them light, and bids 
them beware how they pervert, or abuse it, or call 
it darkness. Prejudice, and partiality, and hostility 
to the truth he allows no man to exercise. None 
may form his judgment without evidence, nor in 
opposition to evidence, but according to evidence; 
and if he fails to do this, he must answer it to his 
Maker. "To his own Master he standeth, or 
fallcth." For this high prerogative God has formed 
him, and given liim a supernatural revelation, and 
laid the solemn injunction upon his conscience, 
"prove all things; hold fast that which is good." 
The Bible gives no man, or set of men, (loniinion 
over human faith. The apostles themselves < x- 
prcssly disclaimed this authority. The max i en of 
the prophets was, "to the law and the tc^stiinoiiy."" 
The direction of the Saviour stands out in living 



144 RELIGIOrS LIBERTY AND 

characters before the world. •* call no man master, 
for one is your master, even Christ." There is no 
thought enstamped more legibly on the pages of 
Holy Writ than the individual, personal responsi- 
bility of every subject of the divine government. 
" If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; 
but if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it.'' 
" Every one of us shall give an account of himself 
unto God.'- " Every man shall be judged accord- 
ing to his works j'' works that are the sole exposi- 
tor of his character, because they are the result 
of affections that indicate him to be the enemy, or 
the friend of righteousness, as they have grown out 
of his views of divine truth. There would be some 
semblance of reason in submitting our religious 
opinions to the dictation of men, if they could 
assume our responsibility and stand in our place 
when we stand in the judgment ; if they could 
suffer in our stead when we and our principles are 
condemned at the last day. I know men may 
greatly abuse the liberty of forming their own 
rehgious opinions. They have done so to their 
souls undoing. I know too that one of the 
great stratagems of the deceiver is this bojisted 
liberty, and that many swerve from the faith 
through the fear of not thinking for themselves. 
But much as this artifice of the destroyer is to be 
detested, better had the right of private judgment 
be abused, than not enjoyed. There is no right, 
without its corresponding obligation. The man 
who abuses the right of private judgment has fear- 






THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 145 

ful responsibilities. Let him see to them. It is 
at his perilj if " he receives not the love of the 
truth, that he may be saved." 

Another of the great principles of religious liberty 
as disclosed in the New Testament is, that reli- 
gion is a spiritual system^ and must he promoted 
hy a moral and spiritual influence, A man's 
opinions do not admit of coercion. You may 
coerce his professions, but not his judgment. You 
may compel him to acknovs^ledge that he believes 
what he does not believe 5 you may make him a 
hypocrite ; but you cannot make him a Christian* 
You cannot reach his understanding by pains and 
penalties, nor by any means of this sort give vigour 
to his conscience, or affect his heart. You may 
awaken resistance ; you may rouse enmity 5 you 
may give hardihood to his obduracy and make him 
patient in suffering 5 but you cannot change his 
views, nor impart holiness of heart, or life. These 
are produced by the blessing of God upon his own 
truth. Men have a part to act in securing this 
result, but it is of no coercive kind. They may 
reason, expostulate, persuade, but it belongs not to 
men to compel. The field of argument and im- 
partial investigation is the arena where the truth 
has ever won her most splendid victories. Christi- 
anity is no gainer, but has been uniformly the looser 
by calhng in tin; aid of the secular arm. Thero 
never was a greater error than in supposing that 
the interests of truth and piety w(Te tlnis advanced. 
We may be sincerely d(\sirous to deliver men from 
13 



14(5 RELIGIOrS LIBERTY AXD 

their intellectual and moral aberrations; we may 
oppose every system of delusion and wickedness, 
and endeavour to break the bondage of the prince 
of darkness 5 but physical force is not the way to 
accomplish this benevolent end. If you would 
promote error, persecute it. If you would establish 
false religions on a more permanent basis than they 
have yet occupied 5 if you would enlist the sympa- 
thies of men in favour of a cause, which otherwise 
would have no sympathy 5 persecute it — send its ad- 
vocates to the stake and gibbet — persecute it to the 
death. "Persecution is disgraceful to those who 
inflict, but honourable to those who suffer it. It 
throws around them the charm and glory of a rela 
tionship to the apostles and prophets, and men of 
whom the world was not worthy." Error is not 
worthy of such an honour. I would not persecute 
error. I would not persecute at all 5 but, if there 
must be persecution, let truth have the honour of 
being the victim. There is a God in heaven, and a 
conscience in the bosoms of men ; and it were 
infinitely better for the cause of righteousness to 
suffer wrong, than to do wrong. "In meekness 
mstructing those who oppose themselves, perad- 
venture God will give them repentance, to the 
acknowledgement of the truth," — this is the way 
the Scriptures recommend of opposing error, des- 
troying false religions, and turning the world to the 
service and worship of the true God. 

There is still another very obvious principle of 
religious liberty disclosed in the New Testament 5 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 147 

and that is, that Civil Government^ as such^ has 
no oilier concern with religion than to respect 
the rights of conscience^ and extend to men of 
all religious names and denominations its im- 
'partial protection. This is all that the true reh- 
gion soUcits of the secular power. This is not 
religious toleration merely, but religious liberty. 
I am acquainted with no writer who has discussed 
this single point with so much abihty, as the cele- 
brated John Locke. He contended with the 
monstrous error, to which we have already refer- 
red, and which was so rife during the reigns of the 
first and second Charles, and even through the 
intervening revolution in the days of Cromwell, 
that men ought to be coerced by pains and penal- 
ties inflicted by the civil power, to profess a de- 
finitely prescribed form of rehgious doctrines, and 
to conform themselves to one particular formulary 
of religious worship. His object was to draw the 
lines of demarcation between the Church and the 
State ; to distinguish between the powers of civil 
government and the powers of religion 5 and to 
show that the one is exclusively concerned in pro- 
moting the spiritual and eternal interests of men, 
and that tbe other has the care of the Common- 
wealth. Tlie province of the civil magistrate, is to 
secure to all the members of the body politic, the 
just enjoyment of life, liberty, reputation and j)r()- 
perty. This is the whole of its jurisdiction. The 
care of souls is not connnitted to the civil magis- 
trate any more than to other men. The power 



148 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

of the civil magistrate, consisting only in outward 
force, is of such a kind that it can never be applied 
for religious purposes, in any other way than by 
the impartial execution of equal laws for the pro- 
tection of rehgious liberty. The Church is a 
different society, formed for different objects, and 
acting within altogether a different jurisdiction. 
It is a spiritual community, and clothed with no 
temporal power. Its objects ai*e the maintainance 
of the true religion and the true worship of God 
in the world. It has its principles and laws, and 
is bound by the authority of Jesus Christ as its 
only King and Head. The Church has no more 
power in the State, than the State has in the 
Church. They are perfectly distinct organiza- 
tions, are pursuing different objects, and exercise 
a different authority. The liberties of the State 
are never in greater jeopardy than when the 
Church is invested with civil power ^ while the 
liberties of religion and the Church are sure to be 
endangered by giving ecclesiastical power to the 
State. The Church never acts more out of cha 
racter, or more unworthy of her high calling, than 
when she arrogates to herself the authority of civil 
government, and endeavours by fire, or sword, or 
civil disabilities of any kind to coerce men to re- 
ceive her doctrines and worship. "My kingdom," 
says the Saviour, " is not of this world 5 if my 
kingdom were of this world, then w^ould my ser- 
vants fight." The Church has no secular organ- 
ization ; no secular head ; no secular nature. She 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 149 

may not oppose force to force, as the kingdoms of 
this world do , nor may she exercise the force 
which this world exercises even in the execution 
of her own laws. 

Such are some of the leading principles of reli- 
gious liberty as contained in the New Testament. 
The world is under lasting obligation for the illus- 
tration and defence of these principles to the inde- 
pendent churches in Great Britain. It was among 
them that the immortal Locke became so deeply 
imbued with that manly liberality of sentiment 
which distinguished him above the men of his age. 
Lord King, himself of the established church, in 
his life of this celebrated philosopher, has the lib- 
erality to say, " By the independent divines, who 
were his instructors, Locke was taught those 
principles of religious liberty which they were the 
first to disclose to the world. — As for toleration, or 
any true notion of religious liberty, or any general 
freedom of conscience, we owe them not in the 
least degree to what is called the church of Eng- 
land. On the contrary, we owe all these to the 
indc^pendents in the time of the commonwealth, and 
to Locke, their most illustrious and enlightened 
disciple." Nor let us withhold the honour that is 
due to the personal exertions of Cromwell him- 
self There never was a firmer Iriend to the rights 
of conscience than Oliver Cromwell. It was his 
interest in the cause of protestantism that induced 
him, on his assumption of the protcM-torafe to choose 
an alliance with Louis \1V. rather than with Spain 
13* 



150 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

and Austria. He made his friendship valuable to 
France and Holland, that by their means he might 
exert the greater influence in behalf of religious 
liberty throughout Europe. Nor was his policy 
unavailing. He well nigh controlled the court of 
Versailles during the early part of the reign of 
Louis. It was the common remark in Paris, that 
Mazarin, the prime minister of Louis, " had less 
fear of the devil, than of Oliver Cromwell." The 
suffering protestants throughout Europe, and even 
from the confines of Hungary and Transylvania 
looked with hope toward the English common- 
wealth. The suifering Vaudois, under the duke of 
Savoy, long and gratefully remembered his merciful 
and princely interpositions in their behalf, amid the 
mouldering ruins of their depopulated villages. 
Besides appointing a fast, and a general collection 
throughout England for these confessors, he wrote 
to the duke of Savoy, to the king of France, to the 
kings of Sweden and Denmark, and to all the pro- 
testant princes in Europe with the view of arrest- 
ing these fearful persecutions. Nor " was any part 
of his negociation with foreign princes more ac- 
ceptable to his country than this."* 



* For a full account of this, see " The Protectorate of Oliver 
Cromwell, and the State of Europe, during the early part of the 
reign of Louis XIV. illustrated in a series of letters between Dr. 
John Pell, resident ambassador at the Swiss Cantons, Sir Sara 
uel Morland, Sir William Lockhart, Mr. Secretary Thurloe, and 
other distinguished men of the time," by Robert Vaughan, D. D. 
of London University. 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 151 

Nor do I refer to these declarations with the 
less reluctance, because I am a presbyterian. It 
must be confessed that the presbyterians of Britain 
were as tenacious of civil power as the episcopa- 
lians 5 nor was there any denomination of Chris- 
tians at that period, except the independents, who, 
as a religious body, recognized to their full extent, 
the sacred rights of conscience, and who while in 
power accorded to others the rights which they 
advocated for themselves under oppression. This 
praise is awarded them by distinguished historians, 
who were themselves ministers and members of the 
established church.* And it is in no small degree 
to the influence of this very class of men, that the 
broad principle of religious liberty holds so promi- 
nent a place in the constitution of the American 
States. Such too are the principles distinctly re- 
cognized in the Confession of Faith and Form of 
Government of the presbyterian church in this 
land. We have never, in this respect trodden in 
the steps of transatlantic presbyterianism. While 
we give an honest preference to our own doctrines 
and discipline, we claim no infallibility *, we invest 
ourselves with no jus dimnum^ and cheerfully ac- 
cede to others the same rights and immunities, both 
civil and religious, which we claim for ourselves. 
Our excellent Confession of Faith explicitly de- 
clares, "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and 



♦ Grant's History of the Enfj^lish (^luircli Scots ; Tntroiluction 
to Col. Hutchinson's Monioirs ; Brodic's 15ritisl» Empire. 



152 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

hath left it free from the doctrines and command- 
ments of men, which are in any thing contrary to 
his word, or beside it, in matters of faith, or wor- 
ship. So that to beheve such doctrines, or to obey 
such commandments out of conscience, is to betray 
true hberty of conscience 5 and the requiring of an 
imphcit faith and an absolute blind obedience, is to 
destroy liberty of conscience and reason also." 

But it will probably be asked, has the church no 
power — no authority over her own members ? Has 
she no discipline ? And may she not admonish, re- 
buke, censure, and even exclude from her commu- 
nion those who reject her doctrines, and pay no 
regard to her w orship ? She has all this authority, 
and is bound meekly and firmly to exercise it. 
She is not a voluntary society, associated upon 
principles of human invention, but a society divinely 
instituted and governed by the laws of her redeem- 
ing God and King. It is indispensable to her 
prosperity, that she be governed 5 that she be go- 
verned by laws well defined and understood. She 
must have rules for admitting, controling, and dis- 
ciplining her members. And her discipline ought 
to be accordant with the high and sacred ends of 
her divine institution. " Ecclesiastical laws," says 
Mr. Locke, " are to be enforced by exhortations, 
and advice. Where these fail, there remains no- 
thing farther to be done but that such stubborn 
and obstinate persons, who give no ground to hope 
for their reformation, should be cast out and sepa- 
rated from the society. This is the last and utmost 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 153 

force of ecclesiastical authority." No man should 
complain, because he is made responsible to the 
church with which he has voluntarily united him- 
self by irrevocable bonds. Nor should he, when 
he denounces her doctrines and government, think 
It a hardship if he is required to acknowledge his 
offence, or withdraw from her communion. " A 
man that is an heretic, after the first and second 
admonition, reject !" " If thy brother shall tress- 
pass against thee, go and tell him his fault between 
thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou 
hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear 
thee, tell it unto the church ; but if he neglect to 
hear the church, let him be unto thee as an hea- 
then man and a publican !" But he must hear^ 
and if he desires it, must be heard. By the 
laws of Christ, the most erring and most vile of 
his professed followers is entitled to a full and im- 
partial trial. To pronounce sentence, or even the 
mildest judicial admonition, without a hearing, is 
a direct violation of the great principles of rehgious 
liberty, the word of God, and the everlasting law 
of rectitude. A church can suffer no greater 
calamity than the loss of such a right. But it 
were a sad perversion of the truth to plead the 
rights of conscience for the neglect of wholesome 
disci[)line. " The free circulation of the blood, 
and the proper discharge of all the animal func- 
tions, are not more necessary to the health of the 
body, than the discipline which Christ has institu- 
ted, to the spiritual health and prosperity of his 



lS4 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND 

body the church." One sickly sheep infects the 
flock. And a black flock would the church indeed 
be, if she were embarrassed and frustrated in at- 
tempts to reclaim, or exclude those who are unfit 
for her fellowship. " How can two walk together, 
except they be agreed ?" Men who are " tossed 
to and fro and carried about with every wind of 
doctrine," may not, because they cannot have any 
fellowship with that truth which is one and immu- 
table. I have given you evidence, by an almost 
thirty years ministry among you, that I am not in- 
sensible that the peace of the church is broken, her 
strength divided, and her vigor impaired by foolish 
contentions : but contentions for substantial truth 
are not foolish. Men may " wrap up their decep- 
tions in scriptural phrases, and even in language 
which is consecrated by the usage of the Christian 
Church, and yet be apostles of error." 

There are two extremes in the exercise of a 
faithful discipline which every Christian Church 
should cautiously avoid. The first is, that it is a 
^flatter of indifference what religious principles 
a man adopts^ and what form of worship he 
prefers. The Bible contains essential principles — 
principles which constitute the very elements and 
essence of the gospel 5 which must be believed and 
loved in order to salvation ; and which are so fun- 
damental, that if any one of them should be denied, 
the denial would, in its legitimate consequences, 
subvert the entire method of salvation throuorh 

o 

Jesus Christ. It forms no part of that religious 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 155 

liberty that is founded on the word of God, that 
it is of no consequence what a man beheves. No 
where is this thought, or feeling encouraged in the 
Scriptures, but every where discouraged, frowned 
upon and denounced. " Keep specially clear," 
says a forcible writer " of uncommon pretenders 
to charity. Satan will mask his designs as long as 
he can, and so will all his ministers. Believe that 
God is love, that he is the great and essential charity. 
Be satisfied then with as much charity as he has 
shown, and do not think of improving upon your 
Maker by entertaining and expressing a more 
charitable opinion of sinners than himself." 

The other extreme is to have no cliarlhj at all. 
There are things spoken of in the Bible, which 
are neither fundamental to the gospel, nor essen- 
tial to salvation, and about which good men may 
differ. Men may be ignorant and uninformed in 
these things, and yet be saved. And I would not 
dare to say, that they may not misunderstand and 
pervert these things, and yet be saved, any more 
than I would dare to say how much indwelling sin 
is compatible with true holiness of heart, or how 
much remaining; unbelief is consistent with savinjr 
faith. The Ic^ast truth p(M*vert(Ml, as well as the 
least remaining sin in tlie h(»art, is without excuse; 
while neitluT of theni proves that the bosom in 
which thoy dw(ill has no interest in the Son of 
(jiod. I hold it one of the great duties of a Ciu*is- 
tian, to judge severely of himself*, of others, <«»a- 



156 SELIGIOrS LIEERTT AND 

ritabiT. ^ Judge not that ye be not judged. For 
with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged j 
and with what measure ye meet, it shall be mea- 
sured to you again.*^ I may not necessarily break 
charity with men as Christians, with whom I 
would not deem it expedient, nor for edification to 
be united in the same ecclesiastical connexions. I 
would hope not to sympathise with their errors; 
bat I would charitably impute their errors to 
causes which may exist in the hearts of good 
men. "Humanum est errare." I may err. as well 
as they. 

" Hmc vemam petunus^ie Ammaqoe licisBim." 

T- T d :k of Christ will be a little flock indeed, 
even atl:er it is all gathered in, if there be not 
many sheep that are not of our own fold. The 
many mansions in om- Fathers house will be bat 
sparsely ir.habited. if it be not tound at the last 
day that God our Sayiour can hold fellowship in 
the Church above, with not a few with whom it is 
not for edification for us to maintain ecclesiastical 
connexions in the Church below. The charity 
that ^ rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the 
truth,'^ also '^beareth all things, beliereth all things, 
hopeth all things-^ As men may be heretics, and 
excluded from the Church without being dehvered 
over to the secular arm, so they may err in judg- 
ment without being heretics. They may differ in 
their religious opinions, and yet be Christians 5 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 157 

they may differ without animosity, without the 
fury of intolerance, without having recourse to 
courts of law, and without disturbing either the 
public peace, or the charities of social life. 

I do not know that I have expressed your views, 
my young friends, in the present lecture. For 
myself, I solicit no greater liberty of conscience 
than this, and I will not be satisfied with less. It 
is impossible for the Church to flourish either in 
alliance with the civil power, or controlled by its 
authority, except so far forth as it extends an im- 
partial protection to her civil rights. Nor is it less 
impossible for her to flourish while composed of 
essentially jarring materials — of the mingled iron 
and clay — of men who believe and profess, and 
men who disbelieve, and deny, and ridicule the fun- 
damental doctrines of the gospel. 

The liberty of conscience is your birthright. 
You are '^ not children of the bondwoman, but of 
the free." There is nothing in the Scriptures 
which debars you from full inquiry into all truth, 
or which demands of you an assent to its doctrines 
without an examination of the evidence that they 
come from God. You boast of this liberty. But 
it is this which renders you so fearfully responsible. 
It is tbis which gives the divine government such 
resistlciss claims upon you, if you turn your liberty 
into licentiousnc^ss, and under the specious pretence 
of this right, become sceptics, or deists, or the 
enemies of God and his trutb, by whatever name 
they may be called. 

11 



LECTURE VI. 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 



There is no one particular in which the Bible 
has effected a greater change in the condition of 
the world, than its outward and visible morality. 
To say nothing of that spiritual character upon 
which the Scriptures every where insist, there is 
not now, nor has there been ever, any portion of 
the world where the principles of revealed religion 
have been received, where the most astonishing 
changes have not been produced in the moral 
habits of society. This justice must be done to 
infidelity, that while it has waged war upon the 
truths of the Bible, it has commended its moral 
precepts 5 and while it has ridiculed its miracles 
and prophecies, it has ingenuously acknowledged 
that its morality is altogether more pure and lofty 
than that which philosophy ever taught. And 
however involuntarily, or incautiously made, such 
confessions are no unmeaning homage rendered to 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 159 

the truth of the Sacred Scriptures. For, if dis^ 
jointed, disfigured, mutilated, torn from its founda- 
tions, and deprived of all its natural life and vigor, 
as it has been by the great mass of infidel writers, 
the morality of the Bible has grandeur and excel- 
lence enough to extort the commendation of its 
enemies ; what must it be, when undisturbed from 
its foundations, unsevered from its proper aliment, 
it is seen and recognized in its true power and ex- 
cellence ! 

Neither pagan philosophers, nor modern infidels, 
nor the philosophical world in Christian lands have 
been without their moral theories. When the 
Saviour of men descended from heaven, the Gre- 
cian and Oriental philosophy had obtained power- 
ful influence over the thinking part of mankind ; — » 
the former prevailing throughout Greece and 
Rome, the latter throughout Persia, Syria, Clial- 
dca, and Egypt. " The Greeks sought after wis- 
dom." And yet among them we find the sect of 
the Epicureans, who believed that the world arose 
from chance ; that the god^s extended no care 
over human affairs ; that the soul was mortal *, that 
pleasure was the chief good 5 and that virtue was 
to be prized only as it contributed to man''s enjoy- 
ment. The academical philosophy, from Plato 
down to the period when the academic school 
was transfi^rriHl to Rome, was professedly a system 
of <l()ul)t and scepticism. Its disciples denied the 
possibility of arriving at truth and certainty; \w\d 
it doubtful whether the god's existed, or did not 



160 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

exist ; whether the soul is mortal and survives the 
body ; and whether virtue is preferable to vice, or 
vice to virtue. The most profound, as well as the 
most ingenious of this sect yielded to the notion, 
that amid the endless varieties of human opinion, 
nothing could be decided. This evil was so deeply 
felt by Socrates, that he deemed it necessary that 
an instructor should be sent from heaven with 
special authority to reveal and enforce the duty of 
man. The Stoics held that man was bound to act 
according to his nature ^ that nature impels him to 
pursue w^hatever appears to be a good 5 that the 
great object of pursuit is not pleasure, but confor- 
mity to nature, and that this is the origin of all 
moral obligation. The oriental philosophy re- 
garded matter as eternal, and as the source and 
origin of all evil and vice 5 and that the material 
creation in its present form, and the race of man, 
derive their origin not from the supreme God, but 
from some inferior being. The Persians asserted 
the existence of two eternal principles, the one 
presiding over light, the other over matter ; the 
one good, and the other evil.* The professed 
character of the god's of paganism was distin- 
guished for crime, while the religion of those who 
worshipped them required them to be immoral. 
I hold it to be a truth capable of clear demon- 



* Murdock's Mosheim, Warberton*s Divine Legation, and Cud- 
worth's Intellectual System. 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 161 

stration, that no man is better than his principles. 
To be virtuous, he must possess virtuous princi- 
ples. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
As his principles are, so is the man. There is an 
indissoluble connection between the nature of his 
moral conduct, and the principles from which they 
flow. Any thing may be called by any name, and 
any thing may appear under any shape 5 but never 
can it happen that of " thorns men gather figs, nor 
of a bramble bush gather they grapes." Men are 
governed in their outward deportment by their in- 
ward views and motives. It is so in politics, in 
literature, in science and the arts *, and it is so in 
morals and religion. And yet, how often do we 
hear it asserted, that it is of little consequence 
what a man beheves, if his heart is right ; that you 
must look at his character and not at his doctrine ; 
that good men are to be found in pagan, Moham- 
medan, and Christian lands, and of all creeds and 
professions ; that moral conduct is not the result 
of any set of opinions ; and that it is of no conse- 
quence what a man's faith is, if he is only sincere ! 
But this is a delusive and destructive morality. If 
there be any truth in such a theory, moral princi- 
ples arc of no account whatever. One system of 
morals is as good as another, and those persons are 
just as likely to be virtuous who believe what is 
falser, as those who believe what is true. Hut com- 
mon sense instinctively revolts from such a doc- 
trine, while all observation and experience evince 
its absurdity. Good conduct never grows out of 
14* 



162 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

corrupt principles, nor is evil conduct the natural 
result of principles that are good. Is it so that a 
man may be one thing in his principles, and another 
in his morality 5 one thing in his belief, and ano- 
ther in his character ? By what sort of philosophy 
is it that he is thus divided against himself; that 
he is tlius torn asunder, and while one part of him 
is pronounced good, another is pronounced bad ? 
A man's principles are himself. His morality is 
himself. Suppose for a moment, that the hypothe- 
sis on which we are animadverting should be real- 
ized. Here is a man who is one thing in his prin- 
ciples and another thing in his practice. He be- 
lieves for example that the earth is a sphere, and 
yet he navigates it as though it were a plain. He 
believes that food is necessary to animal life, and 
yet he abstains from food. He believes that the 
hand of the diligent maketh rich, and yet he is a 
sluggard. He believes that fire will burn, and yet 
he plunges deliberately into the flames. He be- 
lieves that Jehovah is the true God and yet he 
worships the devil. You call him a madman 5 and 
well you may. But not more certainly than the 
man who believes there is no difference between 
what is right and what is wrong, and yet forms all 
his plans and conduct with a view to that difier- 
ence. Not more certainly than the man who be- 
lieves there is no God and no hereafter, and yet 
fears God and shapes his deportment with a view 
to an hereafter. His morality must take its rise 
from his principles. Moral principles constitute 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 1G3 

the seed, the germ of which moral character is but 
the developement. 

Men are every where the subjects of moral law, 
and capable of moral actions. Their conduct as 
moral beings is good or evil, as it rests upon a true 
or false foundation, as it is determined by a true or 
false standard, as it flows from right, or wrong mo- 
tives. And hence it is, that pagan morality is so 
defective. Detached from the Bible, it has no 
other guide than the passions of men, and those 
few principles which may be suggested by the 
lights of reason and nature. It is no caricature 
of pagan morality to say, that it had no settled 
standard of right and wrong, and that we look in 
vain throughout all their philosophy for any well 
established principles of duty, or motives and aims 
that commend themselves to an enlightened con- 
science. What is the nature and foundation of 
virtue ; what is the rule of moral conduct ; what 
is the ultimate object toward which it should be 
directed ; in what does the duty and happiness of 
man consist ? are inquiries which never have been 
satisfactorily answered by the unassisted powers 
of the human mind. What the practical results 
of these uncertain speculations were, the annals 
of all pagan history show. Nor are they any 
where more comprehensively (wliibited than in the 
following declarations of the great aj)ostle, con- 
cerning the whole pagan world. " They became 
vain in their imaginations and their foolisli heart 
was darkened. Thc^ were filled with all unrighte- 



164 MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

ousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, ma- 
liciousness, envy, murder, deceit, malignity. Tiiey 
were backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, 
inventers of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
without natural affection, implacable and unmer- 
ciful." Their manners and customs, where not 
dictated by the love of wickedness, seem to have 
been dictated by mere caprice and whim. What 
was virtue in one country, was vice in another 5 
and what was unpardonable rudeness in one, was 
refinement in another. Egypt was distinguished 
for great corruption of morals, as early as the 
time of Abraham and Joseph. Their public festi- 
vals were celebrated by practises so shameful, that 
they disgrace the page of the historian. If from 
Egypt you pass to Asia Minor, you see the promi- 
nent traits of moral character still the same, — un- 
righteousness, malignity, luxury, effieminacy and 
sensuality. If you look to Greece, in the early 
part of their history, you see brutal savageness in 
its most shameless forms 5 while, in the age of 
greater refinement, iniquity only " put on an em- 
broidered garb, and of more delicate texture." 
The Olympic, Pythian, and Isthmian games, while 
they imparted that strength of body and courage 
in battle, which were formerly the most enviable 
qualities which this nation knew, degraded and 
polluted their minds and morals to the lowest de- 
gree of debasement. Wherever indeed you read 
of the " heroic ages" of ancient times, you may 
be assured they are fruitful in crime and horror, 



THE MORAT.ITY OF THE BIBLE. 165 

in parricide and incest, and all those melancholy 
and tragic catastrophies which present the most 
dismal and hideous picture of our race. The 
monarchs of Assyria passed the greater part of 
their lives in voluptuousness and debauchery. The 
proud Semiramis, notwithstanding all the com- 
mendations passed upon her heroism, led her sub- 
jects a career of unrestricted voluptuousness and 
debauchery. The most brilliant ages of Babylon 
were most distinguished for dissolutenesss, and 
even the greatest refinement in debauchery. — 
Gorged with riches, they tasked their ingenuity in 
the invention of all that could delight the senses, 
and alternately excite and gratify the basest pas- 
sions. Here was that memorable temple in which 
every female was obliged by law, once in her life 
to prostitute herself to a stranger, for the purpose 
of augmenting the public revenue. As a general 
fact, debauchery was not only allowed by the 
ancient pagans, but approved by their religion. 
Even as cultivated a mind as that of Cicero, re- 
garded it as no crime. Horace represents Cato 
as con: mending the young men who frequent the 
public houses of pollution, because they did no- 



" Virtiitc Oslo, inqnit sentcntia, DIa Catonis 
Nam Hiinul ac vrnaH inflavit tetra libido 
Hue juvono.«, oquuni est dcsceiidore non alicnas 
Pcrmolcrc uxorcs." Sat. lib. I. S. 2. », 33, 



166 THE 3I0IIALITY Or THE BIBLE. 

purest state of Rome, and of Cato, the severest 
censor of public manners, what must have been 
the most impure ? I will tell you what they were. 
The emperor Nero drove through the streets of 
his capital with his naked mistress ; and the empe- 
ror Commodus first dishonoured, and then mur- 
dered his own sister. " If these things were done 
in the green tree, what were done in the dry.'' 
Vice always descends from rulers to subjects. If 
such w^ere the morals of emperors, what must have 
been the morals of the common people ? And 
what but such a depravation of morals is to be 
expected, where reason, blinded by appetite, is the 
onlv oruide ; where conscience has no firm moor- 
ing, and the only impulse is the fitful breath of 
passion ? How could the doctrines of paganism 
excite to moral virtue ? It is perfectly obvious 
from the character of their gods, and from their 
hopes of a voluptuous paradise, that the whole 
system of the pagan world had not the least ten- 
dency to produce and cherish virtuous emotions. 
And how much better are the moral principles 
of modern infidels ? Lord Bohngbroke resolves 
all morality into self lore. And so does Volney. 
Hobbes maintains that the sole foundation of ricfht 
and wrong is the civil law, Rousseau says, " All 
the morality of our actions hes in the judgment 
we ourselves form of them." Lord Shaftesbury 
declares that "all the obligations to be virtuous 
arise from the advantages of virtue, and the disad- 
vantages of vice." Hume affirms, that '• moral. 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 167 

intellectual, and corporeal virtues are nearly of 
the same kind." Have such moral principles ever 
reformed the world ? Did they reform their au- 
thors ? Where will such principles lead, if carried 
out into practice ? What are their fruits ? What 
is there in an enlightened conscience that responds 
to their pretensions ? 

And are there not some systems of ethical phi- 
losophy which are not found either among pagans, 
or infidels that are far below the spirit of the 
Bible ? What is the morality, the foundation of 
which is simply what is useful and expedient ; the 
standard of which is the spirit and maxims of this 
world 5 and the motives of which are purely mer- 
cenary and selfish ? Can that be called morahty, 
which recognizes no immutable distinction be- 
tween what is right and what is wrong ; which 
has no reference to the obligations of the divine 
law 5 and is concerned only with our own interests ? 
Can that be called morahty which asks, not what 
is right, but what is profitable ? which enquires 
not for duty, but for interest, for the opinions of 
men, for the spirit of the age ? Such a morahty 
is most certainly radically defective. It is the 
morality of the world, not of the Bible. It is a 
mere external morality. It has no thorough 
lodgment, no permanent abode in the hidden 
chambiTs of the soul. It is a superficial observ- 
ance. It is what all morality must [)e, se|>arat(»d 
from the truth of the Scriptures: — a body without 



168 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

a soul — a whited sepulchre — splendid only in se- 
pulchral magnificence. 

The morality of the Bible is well and intelligibly 
denned. Its foundation, its standard, its motives 
are distinctly set before us, and ought not to be 
misunderstood. Why then is any being in the 
universe under obligations to be morally virtuous? 
Why is the Divine Being bound to be holy, unless 
because holiness is right, and he is capable of per 
ceiving it to be so ? And why are intelligent 
creatures bound to be morally virtuous, unless be- 
cause they are so made as to be able to perceive, 
and feel under obligation to approve and practise 
moral virtue ? " Be ye holy^ for I the Lord your 
God am holy,'^^ If the Divine Being were malevo 
lent, or selfish, would that circumstance bind us to 
be so too ? The moral excellence of the divine 
character is a good and sufficient reason why men 
should be morally excellent. God requires them to 
be holy^ because he is holy. The character that 
is right in God, is right in creatures. It is in its 
own nature just what it ought to be. The Deity 
would not be satisfied with himself without pos- 
sessing such a character 5 nor w^ould virtuous and 
holy minds be satisfied with him, if he were not 
thus perfectly amiable and excellent. God is 
love 5 God is truth ; God is rectitude 5 God is 
mercy ; God is justice. There is a wide and im 
mutable difference between such a character and 
the opposite. The former is right, and the latter 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 169 

is wrong. Nothing can reconcile them. There 
is not, nor can there be any gradual approxima- 
tion of them to one another. They are perfect 
opposites, and so will always remain. It would 
not be right for God to possess any other charac- 
ter than that w hich he does possess 5 and no con- 
siderations of profit and loss, no considerations of 
the probable tendency of any other character, can 
ever induce him to change, or modify it 5 nor 
were it possible to do so, except for the worse. 
The foundation of moral obligation therefore lies 
in the immutable difference between what is right 
and what is wrong, and in the capacity of intelli- 
gent beings to perceive that difference. I say in 
the capacity to perceive that difference 5 for in a 
fallen creature especially, that difference may not 
always be perceived, while the obligation to per- 
ceive it remains unimpared. When we look at 
our own natures, and the natures of our fellow 
men ; when we contemplate the relations we sus 
tain to them and they sustain to us 5 unless our 
minds arc blinded by wickedness, we cannot help 
perceiving that all the moral virtues are right 
They grow out of our mutual relations, and not to 
practise them is wrong. And on this basis the 
Scriptures place our obligations to moral virtue. 

It has been often assorted that utilift/ is tiio 
foundation of moral obligation. Utility to whom? 
To mc ? Then indeed is the securing of my own 
advantage tlie grc^at end. And what sort of moral 
virtues is this? Utility to tlui tinlrrrsc ? TImmi 
15 



T70 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

let it be made to appear that throughout the vast 
empire of God no sinful thought or action was 
ever indispensable to the highest good. Nothing 
is more obvious from the Bible than that the reason 
why God requires moral virtue is, not because it is 
useful, but because it is right. He is " of purer 
eyes than to behold iniquity and cannot look on 
sir. " He could not be bribed to do this for all the 
universe, ten thousand times told. He requires 
the duties of morality because they are right, and 
in conformity with himself He does not " do evil 
that good may come." He never requires men to 
do what is wrong, even though he foresees in many 
instances, that their sinful conduct may be turned 
to the best account. It is utterly immoral to make 
utility the foundation of moral obligation, and to 
assign either the direct or indirect tendency of an 
action to promote happiness, as the reason why it 
ought to be performed. Moral virtue has a nature 
besides its tendency to happiness. Just as truth 
differs essentially and immutably from falsehood, 
just as light differs from darkness, and sweet from 
bitter, does good differ from evil. No law can 
confound them ; no beneficial tendency of the one, 
or of the other can alter their nature ; but like the 
nature of the Deity, they will remain forever the 
same. To make utility the foundation of moral 
virtue, seems to my mind to tear up all the founda- 
tions of moral virtue itself Virtue is no longer 
virtue, and vice is no longer vice, if this theory be 
true. If this theory were true, then, if in view of 



THE MCriALITY OF TIIi: BIBLE. 171 

the divine mind, vice is expedient, it is no longer 
vice ; and if virtue is inexpedient, it is no longer 
virtue. And what wonder if men should abase 
this reasoning, put themselves in the place of God, 
and decide that to be virtue which promotes their 
happiness, and that to be vice which promotes 
their misery ? There have been such moral philo- 
sophers and they are w^ell described by the apostle 
as — '' men of corrupt minds, supposing that gain 
is godliness.'' Such a morality were the most 
changeful and evanescent thing in the world. No 
matter what its pretensions, it is mere selfishness, 
and radically hostile to all moral virtue. If virtue 
is any thing, it is virtue every where and always; 
and if vice is any thing — any thing but a name, it 
is vice always and every where. The divine na- 
ture is unchanging. It is virtue — the highest 
virtue ; and nothing in the condition of this world, 
or other worlds — nothing in the divine purposes 
or government — nothing in time or eternity, can 
alter its nature. And this is one reason why, when 
the knowledge of God was lost in the world, there 
wero no longer any just ideas of virtue and moral 
obligation. How is it possible there should be a 
sound morality where there is no knowledge of 
God ? Th(;re is a chasm in morals which can be 
supplied only by a just acquaintance with the 
D(nty. 

The Bible teaches us that the true and only 
standard of morality is the divine law. The rule, 
or standard of duty, is a dilierent thing from the 



172 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

foundation of moral obligation. No being in the 
universe is so capable of judging of the nature of 
moral virtue, of the difference between w^hat is 
right and what is wrong in all the circumstances 
and relations of human existence, and of what is, 
and what is not conformed to his own character, 
as God himself. No creature has the riglit to do 
this to any such extent as would make his own 
will, or judgment, or notions of any kind, the rule. 
The only standard to which all human conduct 
ought to be conformed, and conformity to which 
is rectitude, is the law of the great Supreme. If 
there be a God, he must rule 5 his will must be 
law. He has no superior, no antecedent 5 and there 
is no being of equal claims and rectitude. He only 
has a right to give law, and he only is able to give it 
in conformity to the eternal rule of his own perfect 
nature. We have perfect assurance that his law is 
like himself, and that he requires nothing but what 
is right, and forbids nothing but what is wrong. Be- 
cause his own character is spotless and pure, he 
requires purity in others. Nothing but moral 
virtue is the object of his approbation and com- 
placency, and therefore he can require nothing 
else. His will is the safe standard in kind, weight 
and measure. Whose will should be law, if not 
his in whom men live, and move, and have their 
being ; whose, if not the will of that great law- 
giver, whose authority is uncontrolled and infinite ? 
How can we wonder at the fluctuating morality 
of the pagan nations, when they have no unfiuc- 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 173 

tuating standard ? how can it be otherwise than 
that their ideas of moral virtue should be low and 
contracted, when even their very vices are pre- 
scribed as virtues ? 

If the previous remarks are just, it scarcely need 
be said, that the grand motive of a sound morality 
is a heart-felt respect for God as the rightful law- 
giver. It is a remark of the infidel Volney, that 
" there is no merit, or crime in intention." Just 
the reverse of this, is the morality of the Bible. 
What it uniformly requires is virtuous conduct 
springing from right motives. It aims at the heart. 
It addresses its claims, not to the love of pleasure, 
nor the love of the world, nor the love of fame and 
power, but to an ingenuous regard for God. It is 
a sense of duty that governs, and of duty springing 
from love to God. It is a sense of right. Our 
selfishness may be never so wisely directed ; its 
calculations may be never so shrewd and politic ; 
but they can never rise to the elevation of holy 
love. Nay, '•• though I give all my goods to feed 
the poor, and my body to be burned, and have not 
love 5 I am nothing." The morality and the reli- 
gion of the Bible are identified. "This is the love 
of God that we keep his commandments." There 
is no love to God without keeping his command- 
ments, and there is no keeping his conunandnKMits 
without love to God. There is no religion witliout 
morality, and there is no morality without reli^non. 
In the lan^ruage of a modern Scottisli writer, '^ Mo- 
rality is religion in practice ^ religion is morality in 
15* 



174 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

principle."* The morality of the Bible springs 
jfrom the predominant principle of holy love. And 
it is an all-governing principle — fruitfal, life-giving 
and powerful — stronger even than the energetic 
principles of evil within us, and making the yoke 
of obedience easy, and its burden light. 

Such are the distinctions between the morality 
of the world and the morality of the Scriptures. 
The former has no foundation on which it can 
rest; no unvarying standard, no high-born impulse. 
It may have instances of cautious abstinence, of 
ardent devotement, of heroic magnanimity 5 but 
they will not bear the inspection of the omniscient 
eye, nor the analysis of eternal truth. Their ele- 
ments are pride, vanity, and egotism. Actions 
whose fame has resounded through the world, at- 
chievements whose praise is recorded on the page 
of history, men whose proud name has been encir 
cled with a halo of human glory from age to age, 
will all be found wanting when once weighed in 
the balances of eternal truth and rectitude. It is a 
remark of Foster, in his Essay upon the causes for 
the neglect of evangelical religion by men of taste, 
that '' the moral philosophers seem anxious to avoid 
every thing that might subject them to the appel- 
lation of Christian divines. They regard their de- 
partment as a science complete in itself^ and they 
investigate the foundations of morality, define its 
laws, and affix its sanctions in a manner generally 



• Wardlaw's Christian Ethics. 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 175 

SO distinct from Christianity, that the reader would 
almost conclude religion to be another science 
complete in itself. It is striking to observe how 
small a portion of the ideas which distinguish the 
New Testament from other books, many moral 
philosophers have thought indispensable to a the- 
ory, in which they professed to include the entire 
duty and interests of men. A serious reader is con- 
strained to feel that there is either too much in 
that book, or too little in theirs." The justice and 
importance of these observations will occur to the 
mind of every one as he adverts to the treatises of 
Paley, Gisborn, Brown, Stewart, and Mcintosh. 
It should excite no great surprise in a Christian 
audience to be told that the science of morals is 
founded on the principles of divine revelation, and 
that the great principles of morality are insepara- 
ble from the word of God. Moral philosophy is 
the science which treats of the nature of human 
actions, of the motives and laws which govern 
them, and of the ends to which they ought to be 
directed. And surely such a philosophy is found 
in the Bible alone. For the heart to be right to- 
ward man, it must be right with God. Motives for 
the regulation of human conduct are suggested in 
abundance by men whose moral theories were 
never identified with the sacred volume ; but they 
have been addressed, if not to the worst, to some 
of the most unworthy passions of thelunnan luart. 
But the morality founded on such a basis, and sup- 
ported by such incentives, is devoid of principle. 



176 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

It knows no law but the opinions of men, and the 
ever fluctuating state of human society. It invests 
itself with different forms, as the character of the 
age, the state of the times, and the circumstances 
of the individual require. It is one thing in Europe, 
and another in Asia ^ one thing in the palace, and 
another in the mansions of the poor ; one thing 
amid the quietude and searching observation of a 
rural village, and another amid the bustle and con- 
cealipent of a crowded city; one thing on the Ex- 
chaiige, and another amid the retirement of private 
life; one thing in the equable seasons of untempt- 
ing prosperity, another amid the embarrassments 
and agitations of calamity and misfortune; one 
thing in peace, and another in war ; one thing at 
hom^, and another abroad. It is one thing to-day, 
and another thing to-morrow. It is unstable as 
water and variable as the wind. It is a tempori- 
zing, time-serving morality. It complies with the 
hour and the occasion. It humours the current of 
opinion and circumstances. It is a system of moral 
obsequiousness, that is every v/here pliant and con- 
ciliating except to the claims of sterling integrity. 

But w^ith what different views do we regard the 
morahty of the Scriptures. On every page of 
this sacred volume we see a system of ethics as 
pure, as lofty, as invariable as its Divine Author. 
We meet with perpetual evidence of those great 
principles of unbending virtue, which, while they 
purify and regulate the interior, also purify and 
regulate the exterior man ; and which produce an 



THfi MOP.ALITY OF THE BIBLE. 177 

equability of character, a " calm constancy," a 
tenderness of conscience, a kindness of spirit, as 
far removed from the morality and philanthropy 
of the world, as are the cold abstractions of hea- 
then philosophy from the sermon on the mount. 
The Bible settles the great question, What is du- 
ty ? It is every where familiar with that all-im- 
portant principle, that to do right^ men must 
do what is right in itself^ from right motives^ 
and with a right spirit. These two things God 
has joined together, and no man may put them 
asunder. It is not enough that a man's conscience 
is satisfied that he is doing right, unless he does 
it with a right spirit and from right motives. Nor 
is it enough that he acts from a right spirit and 
right motives, unless he does what is right in itself. 
He may not speak what is untrue, because he does 
it with benevolent intentions ; nor wreak a malig- 
nant revenge upon his enemy, because his con- 
science may be so blinded as to justify his maligni- 
ty. Conscience may be so blinded as to lead a 
man sincerely to do what is abomination in the 
sight of God. The rectitude of his conduct may 
not depend on his sincerity. He may act from 
prejudice, selfishness, and malevolence ; and the 
time may come when, notwithstanding all the con- 
victions of his conscience, like Saul of Tarsus, he 
may bewail the madness of his spirit, and see that 
he was altogether without excuse. His conscience 
may adopt fiils(^ conclusions, conclusions in which 
light is resisted because ho loves darkness; while 



178 THE MORALIi 



in opposition to evidence he may persist in these 
conckisions, because a wrong spirit has paramount 
power. It is only when conscience is obeyed 
from a right spirit, that we have convincing evi- 
dence that our conduct is right in the sight of 
God. We may do many things that seem to be 
right, from a wrong spirit 5 and we may do many 
things that are wrong, from a right spirit. The 
morality of the Bible teaches us that to do right, 
we must do so from a right spirit. 

Such a moraUty is the same thing every where. 
In every portion of it you see the divine original. 
What it is now^, it always was, and always will be. 
The knowledge and love of God impart a simpli 
city, a symmetry, a beauty to the theory of morals 
which insinuate themselves into every part of the 
system, and by a thousand imperceptible shades 
and impulses, adorn and control the whole. What 
beautiful simplicity, what resistless energy, when 
contrasted with the heavy and complicated move- 
ments of an infidel, a pagan, or a pharisaic mo- 
rality ! God requires it — this is the motive which 
sways the Christian moralist. You may descant 
upon the dignity of his nature, upon the beauty of 
virtue, the turpitude of vice, and the claims of a 
well regulated selfishness 5 but how weak and un 
attractive are such considerations compared with 
the authority of that Supreme Being whom he 
loves and adores ! 

Would you reform the manners of human so 
ciety, you must aim at the heart; you must diffuse 



1 



THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 179 

throughout the mass the leaven of truth ; you must 
throw around the conscience the strong bonds of 
obligation, and draw the heart by the cords of 
love, as with the bands of a man. You must 
extend the empire of the great Lawgiver over the 
understanding, over the memory, over the imagi- 
nation, over the warm and grateful affections, over 
the whole soul. This alone will suppress the ger- 
minations of crime, and check wickedness in its 
bud. This will impart the seeds of virtuous prin- 
ciple, which, in the maturity of their growth and 
expansion, will exemplify on the largest scale the 
great practical axiom, distinguished alike for its 
certainty and its perspicuity, " Make the tree good 
and its fruit good." 

The only specious objection to the morality of 
the Bible is, that it is one of its leading doctrines 
that moral virtue avails nothinfj toward makin*? aii 
atonement for sin *, that no transgressor of the di- 
vine law can merit anything by his good works 5 
that his justification is entirely gratuitous and rests 
upon the righteousness of another 5 and that in the 
whole matter of his salvation, " it is not of liim 
that willcth, nor of him that runneth, but of God 
that showeth mercy." If this is so, of what avail, 
it is asked, are all the moral virtues, and what en- 
couragement have men to do the will of Cod ? 
We need only reply to this, that the fotirttJfih'on 
of man's acceptance and justification before (»od 
is one thin;];, and the cluiractcr or moral con;Ji- 
tion in which he is justified is another. TIh' fnun- 



180 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

dation of his justification is the finished atonement, 
the obedience unto death of God's eternal Son. 
The character, or moral condition in which he is 
justified is that of a repentant sinner, an humble 
believer in Jesus Christ. But what is the faith 
which is thus the condition of his acceptance ? Is 
it a cold assent to the truths of the gospel ? Or is 
it a warm, vivifying sentiment of the heart, working 
by love and putting all the powers of the soul into 
vigorous action in deeds of righteousness ? " What 
doth it profit, tho' a man say he have faith and 
have not works '?" Do the Scriptures recognize 
any such faith as this, even though a man may say 
he have it, and that it is the true faith ? " Can 
such a faith save him ?" Never. If it have not 
works, " it is dead, being alone." It is no faith. 
Works of righteousness are not merely the fruits 
of faith, but they enter into the nature of all the 
faith that lives, and breaths, and throws its anima- 
ting pulsations throughout his moral frame. So 
that the method of gratuitous justification by faith 
in the Son of God, instead of annihilating, con- 
firms ; instead of diminishing, augments 5 and in- 
stead of countervailing, gives a new impulse to 
the primoeval obfigations and motives to moral vir- 
tue. "How shall we who are dead to sin, live 
any longer therein ?" Is this undermining the 
obligations to moral virtue ? " Ye have been 
bought with a price, and that not of silver and 
gold, but with the precious blood of the Son of 
God, as of a lamb without blemish and without 



THE MORALITY OP THE BIBLE. 181 

spot; wherefore glorify God in your bodies and 
spirits, which are his." Is this diminishing the 
motives to moral virtue ? " The love of Christ 
constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one 
died for all, then were all dead ; and that he died 
for all, that they which live should not henceforth 
live unto themselves, but to him that died for 
them, and rose again." Is this weakening the 
force of moral obligation ? " Do we make void 
the law through faith ? Yea, we establish the 
law." "This do, and thou shall live," is to the 
transgressor an impracticable condition. It is too 
late for a sinner to dream of being justified by 
deeds of law. But there is another law. "Be- 
lieve, and thou shall be saved." Under the first 
covenant, obedience secures salvation 5 under the 
second, salvation secures obedience. He "loves 
much, who has much forgiven ;" and he only 
obeys, who loves. 

If I urge upon you then, my young friends the 
claims of morality, it is the morality of the Bible. 
It is not the morality of Seneca or Plato. Nor is 
it the morality of the young man who said, " All 
these have I kept from my youth up ,*" but whose 
" heart was bound in fetters of gold." There is a 
morality that will never become the possessor of 
heavenly treasures. Nay, it were '' easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle," than for 
such a morality to enter into the kingdom of God. 
You must prartically acknowledge the God of 
heaven as your king and love him with an un- 
10 



188 THE MORALITY OF THE BIBLE. 

divided heart. You must take up your cross and 
follow your Saviour, or you are not worthy of him. 
True morality will lead you to love him above all 
others, and prefer his service above that of all other 
masters. Without this, it were in vain to think 
of governing your life by his example and laws. 
A mere outward morality will serve you and your 
generation a little while ; it may even diminish the 
aggravation of your criiilt and the weight of your 
sulierings in the future world. But it can avert 
neither : and if this is all you have to plead in 
the presence of your Judge, it will •• profit you 
notliing.^ 



LECTURE VII. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE UPON THE SOCIAL 
INSTITUTIONS. 



By social institutions, I mean those which form 
the basis, or grow out of the various relations of 
human society. Man is a social being. His phy- 
sical, intellectual, and moral constitution, have a 
manifest reference to a state of social existence. 
Destitute of that strength which distinguishes 
many animals, unfurnished by nature either with 
weapons to resist, or speed to escape from their 
attacks, care for his safety alone would lead him 
to unite himself in close alliance with others of 
his species. The years of childhood and old age 
are conditions in which he must of necessity de- 
pend upon others ; and in claiming during these 
periods of infirmity, sustenance and protection 
from his fellow men, he must consent in the days 
of his own strength to anticipate and deserve theiiK 



184 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

Though well nigh the most helpless of all the ani- 
mal creation, no longer a weak, isolated existence, 
he has been constituted the lord of this lower 
world. Instead of being the prey of ravenous 
beasts, he holds the brute creation in fear and ser- 
vitude 5 instead of being exposed to the tempest, 
his dwelHng bids defiance to the winds 5 and when 
the hunger, want, and debility which he has suc- 
coured in others, become his own lot, his past ser- 
vices return to him at the hands of his fellows, 
though it be after many days. But not alone 
from his physical nature is he impelled to seek tfie 
society of his species. His moral and intellectual 
faculties determine him no less strongly to a social 
state, and pre-eminently fit him for it. Some of 
the noblest faculties of his soul, as well as some of 
the most amiable and exalted of his natural affec- 
tions could be exercised only in such a condition. 
Benevolence, complacency, gratitude and heroism 
w^ould all lie dormant, if he were an isolated being. 
Next to the pure fountains of spiritual joy, the 
most delightful sources of his enjoyment are those 
for the first time unlocked when he meets his fel- 
low man. Isolated man can scarcely be said to 
have the capacity for lofly thought, or great at- 
chievement. The noble efforts of human power 
and genius, of which there are so many monu- 
ments in our world, have been made under the 
strong encouragement, the powerful incentive of 
society. Led by these impulses, and guided by 
the light of nature alone, man has no doubt made 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 185 

vast progress in the arts of social life. He has 
founded empires, builded cities, collected armies, 
and has framed laws for their government and 
guidance. Literature and the arts have flourished 
in a greater or less degree of splendour, and a 
beneficial, though imperfect code of morality has 
crowned the work of his mind and hands, and 
raised it to the highest elevation which his own 
unaided powers have permitted. 

Still however the structure is incomplete. It 
rests on no sure foundation, and is also imperfectly 
cemented and fitted together. The elements of 
which it is compounded are of such conflicting 
quaUties, that they can be brought into harmony 
and perfect union, only by the all-pervading in- 
fluence of a pure system of morality, founded on 
pure religion. To be sensible of this, it is neces- 
sary to take a glance at the various relations of 
human hfe where no supernatural revelation has 
ever been made. And here permit me to remark, 
this is the only method of ascertaining the appro- 
priate influence of a supernatural revelation upon 
the social institutions. What was the state of hu- 
man society before the Bible was given to men ? 
What has been its condition since, and what is it 
now ? There are evils in the social state ; but had 
they no existence before a supernatural revelation 
was known ? In what condition did the Scriptures 
find the social institutions ? In what condition are 
these institutions found at the present day, where 
the Bible has never been known, or heard of/ la- 
16* 



186 SOCIAL INSTITUTIOWS. 

fidels have charged not a few of the social calami- 
ties in the world on the introduction of Chris- 
tianity. But I cannot help thinking, that if they 
did not feel an interest in rejecting the sacred 
Scriptures; if these holy oracles did not so severely 
reprove their wickedness and rebuke their pride; 
and if they were not either profoundly ignorant, 
or obstinately perverse; they would never resort 
to so dishonourable and disingenuous a mode of 
reasoning. The true questions in such a discus- 
sion are, has human society ever been well organ- 
ized without the Bible ? — Have the social rights 
and obligations been any where understood and 
respected, where the Scriptures have had no exist- 
ence ? — And where they have been best under 
stood and respected, and their various relations 
have been peaceful and happy, has the Bible dis- 
turbed this organization, trampled on these rights 
and obligations, and rendered men contentious and 
miserable ? We are bold to say, that an enlight- 
ened and honest answer to these inquiries will do 
honour to the Bible. Where the Scriptures have 
found men without any social bonds, there they 
have laid the foundations and reared the super- 
structure of institutions that have endured for ages. 
Where they have found society loose and dis- 
jointed, and formed upon principles that must en- 
sure its overthrow ; there, as fast as they could 
exert their influence, have they, without fail, re- 
duced this chaos to order and beauty. And where 
they have found it unrefined and impure, gross and 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 187 

cruel ; there have they, even in the most corrupted 
ages of Christianity, silently effected a change in 
the social relations which has gradually elevated 
the minds and habits of men to a visible and ac- 
knowledged superiority over all pagan lands. 

There seem to be two sources from which man 
might of himself arrive at a considerable degree of 
social culture and enjoyment. The first is from 
the invention of some system of religion, which, by 
superstitiously influencing his fears and his hopes, 
would restrain him from crime, and by its imposing 
ceremonies and dark mysteries, influence him to 
virtue. The second is by the careful cultivation 
of those intellectual faculties which God has given 
him, by the exercise of which his more base and 
degrading propensities may be subdued, and his 
intellectual and moral nature be improved and ele- 
vated. But to show how insuflicient these are to 
produce the end in view, look at the two celebrated 
nations of antiquity, which have the most to boast 
of in these respects; Persia and Rome. The re- 
ligion of the Persians was the purest of all unin- 
spired religions, and the most calculated to elevate 
the soul. In the heavenly bodies, they worshipped 
their unknown author, and in the two presiding 
principles they sought an explanation of the ming- 
ling of good and evil upon the earth, — that problem 
which has so long perplexed and confounded un- 
enlightened reason. But their creed, however in- 
genious, could only exercise the intclicMt, and 
amuse the curiosity of its followers. It was desti- 



188 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

tute of all salutary influence upon their social re- 
lations. The history of Persia is a compendium of 
crimes, suffering and intolerance. A despot ruled 
the state, and polygamy, that despotism in minia- 
ture, gave law to the private and domestic relations 
of the people. In all that philosophy and moral 
culture alone can do for the social institutions, an- 
cient Rome stands pre-eminent among all nations. 
Their religion was indeed gross and peurile in the 
extreme, exercising an unhappy influence upon the 
lower orders, but disbelieved by the priests who 
taught it, and by the worshippers in secret, who 
ridiculed it. Yet so far as the most ingenious and 
sublime speculations of their sages could refine and 
improve them, they were favoured beyond exam 
pie. Look then at their history. In proportion 
as their philosophy improved, the integrity, the 
purity, the happiness of their social relations de- 
clined 5 until the state became the legalized organ 
of oppression and cruelty, the marriage bond the 
pledge of encouraged licentiousness, the domestic 
circle the scene of terror, and that love of country 
for which Rome was distinguished in the best days 
of the early republic, was extinguished in the blood 
which flowed indiscriminately from her friends and 
her enemies. 

I have anticipated much that might be said in 
regard to the relation which exists between the 
state and its citizens^ as these relations are de- 
veloped in pagan and antichristian countries, in the 
lectures on the influence of the Bible on human 



I 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 189 

laws and government. If any man will examine 
the government of Rome from the institution of 
the regal government, to the expulsion of Tarquin ; 
from the consulship established by Brutus, to the 
magistracy of the military tribunes 5 from the usur- 
pation of Cinna, to the supreme power of Augus- 
tus ; from the empire of Augustus, to that of Nero 5 
from Nero, to Valerian, and from Valerian, to 
Constantine ; he will see dissimulation, revolt, tu- 
mult, slaughter, revolution, despotism, servitude, 
peace and war, and where the evils of peace were 
not unfrequently the worst calamities. Often was 
that fair land deluged with blood from the ambition 
of rivals to the throne. And then again, new 
schemes of mutual ambition would carry fire and 
sword to the remote and peaceful nations, till the 
flames of civil war raged in almost every part of 
the world. The resources of some great mind, in- 
creased and irritated by his calamities, possessing 
all the vices and none of the virtues of his species, 
would devclope itself in all its hideousness, and 
wreak its vengeance in atrocities that cannot be 
thought of without horror. While, as often, elated 
with success, and dazzled with the? pomp and con- 
sequence of station, it would again seek repose in 
brutal indulgence, or sanguinary persecutions. And 
how much betlc r was ancient Greece, or Gaul, or 
Germany, or 13ritain ? How much better are the 
modern nations of paganism, where the power of 
Clnistian lands does not restrain their ferocity ? 
Just in the measure in which the iniluence of 



190 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

the Bible has been extended to the nations, have 
these evils been diminished, or entirely removed. 
"The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,'' says the 
anointed king of Israel, " and his word was in my 
tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of 
Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men 
must be just, ruhng in the fear of God : and he 
shall be as the light of the morning, when the 
sun riseth, even a morning without clouds ^ as 
the tender grass springing out of the earth by 
clear shining after rain." The relation existing 
between the State and its citizens, the Bible re- 
cognizes as of divine appointment. The foun- 
dation of civil government is the will of God. 
Life, liberty, and property, peace and order, 
public morals and religion, have never been left 
by the benevolent author of our social existence, 
to chance, or anarchy, or the social compact. 
Government is an ordinance of heaven. "The 
powers that be, are ordained of God," not for 
their own honour and aggrandizement, but for the 
good of their subjects — not to gratify the pride, 
minister to the lusts, and subserve the ambition 
of rulers, but for the tranquillity, virtue, and pros- 
perity of those they govern. Where, in pagan, 
and Mahometan lands, are rulers taught this im- 
portant and salutary lesson from any such sources 
as make them feel its authority, or constrain them 
lo respect the rights of the people ? Or where, 
except in lands illumined by the light of super- 
natural revelatioUj do the people, on the one hand, 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 191 

know and feel that they have rights, and are 
themselves clothed with the authority to see that 
they are respected 5 or on the other, know and 
feel that government is an institution of heaven ? 
Christian princes, it is true, have not always ex- 
erted the happy influence which the God of na- 
tions requires them to exert. Nor have Christian 
nations always respected their rulers, or asserted 
their own rights with firmness, and with the meek- 
ness of wisdom. But where have antichristian 
and pagan princes done it ? And where have pa- 
gan nations, in a single instance, been influenced 
by any other motive than the restive, factious de- 
termination to put down one despot for the sake 
of elevating another ? But look through Chris- 
tian lands, and see how often the prerogative of 
the prince has been limited, and the rights of man 
asserted by a free and virtuous people. Witness 
the condition of England from the time of Alfred 
to the present hour. Witness the condition of 
France, though more often scourged by severe 
persecutions, from the reign of Clovis to the ac- 
cession of Louis PhiUippe. Witness the triumph 
of Germany over Leo X. and the fifth Charles. 
And witness our own memorable revolution. What 
had been the condition of this brave and high- 
minded people in those days of peril, but for the 
Bible? And what had been our condition at 
many a fi^arful crisis of our public affairs, since that 
period, had these American States not been re- 
strained and governed by tlic spirit of that holy 



192 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

book ? Our obligations to the religion of the 
Bible, are not always, in this respect, duly appre- 
ciated. Why is it, that at every popular elec- 
tion, instead of some petty broil, we are not in- 
volved in oceans of blood ? It is because there 
is found, through the blessing of Almighty God, a 
mass of public virtue, a weight of moral principle, — 
virtue and principle founded on the word of God, — 
that subdues and restrains the " wrath of man." 
Why is it, that with every calamitous and disas- 
trous measure of our government, we do not wit- 
ness the scenes that were exhibited in Rome, 
under the reigns of Tiberius and Nero ? It is 
because we have been taught from the lips of the 
divine Saviour himself, to " render unto Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things 
that are God's." It is because his holy apostles 
have given us the injunctions, " Let every soul be 
subject to the higher powers', submit yourselves 
to every ordinance of ihan for the Lord's sake." 
It is because w^e have been taught to respect, and 
reverence, and pray for our rulers, " that we may 
lead a quiet and peacable life, in all godliness and 
honesty 5 knowing that this is good and accepta- 
ble in the sight of God our Saviour." Such a 
spirit constitutes a virtuous community ; and with 
such a spirit no people can promote discord and 
revolution, until " patience has had its perfect 
work," and the last limits of Christian forbearance 
have been far exceeded. Who does not see with 
how much more benevolence the Scriptures con- 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 193 

trol the relation between the state and its citizens, 
than any other book, or any other set of opinions, 
or any other maxims, however high their authori- 
ty, or however extensively received ? Who does 
not see that the crimes and sufferings so long at- 
tendant on the administration of human govern- 
ments, would soon be unknown, and the conten- 
tions, revolutions and blood which have so long 
desolated the earth soon disappear, if the Scrip- 
tures were once duly honoured, and the voice of 
God regarded in preference to the seductive influ- 
ence of aspiring, designing, and corrupting men ? 
The most important of the all social institutions is 
marriage^ — the primaeval, parent source of all the 
other relations. Nor is there any expression of 
the divine wisdom in determining the condition of 
the human race, more significant and delightful 
than this sacred institution. It is by this relation, 
that the world we inhabit is constituted a collec- 
tion of famihes; where the best natural affections 
are cherished, and the worst subdued 5 where there 
is a community of affections and interests 5 and 
where are the highest inducements to a reciprocal 
and virtuous influence, and especially in forming 
the character of the rising generation. The in- 
habitants of this earth are not brought into exist- 
ence by Ji singles act of creative power, such as 
gave existence to the angelic creation. These 
unfallen existcncics, with all \\\v\v shining hosts, 
and in ;ill the variety of their rank and excc^IIence, 
were formed at once, and with no successive do- 
17 



194 SOCIAL INSTITUTIOIVS. 

pendance of one generation upon that which pre- 
ceded it. Nor has there probably been any in- 
crease, or diminution in their numbers, since that 
early dawn of the creation, when these " morning 
gtars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy." And such will be the relation of the 
"spirits of just men made perfect," after the resur- 
rection. ''They neither marry, nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels of God, in heaven.'' 
The race of man, on the other hand, is perpetually 
increasing, and the current of human existencies 
flowing on, augmented by almost innumerable tri- 
butary streams to the end of time. It required 
more than finite wisdom so to arrange this per- 
petually augmenting population, as most effectually 
to consult its social interests, its honourable, virtu 
ous character, its immortal destiny. And who 
does not see with what admirable efficiency these 
ends may be secured, and secured only by the 
nuptial bond ? To test the verity and importance 
of this remark, let us bestow a few considerations 
on the methods by w^hich human society may be 
supposed to be organized and continued 

The first is by a promiscuous intercourse of 
the sexes^ unrestrained by any law, and uncon- 
trolled except by the consent of the parties. Such 
has been the usage of a few barbarous lands 5 such 
is the doctrine of Robert Dale Owen and other 
modern reformers \ and such are the Iiabifs of a 
few gregarious, anomalous communities, even in 
Christian countries at the present day. From the 



I 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 195 

cradle, the sexes are taught that there is no 
barrier even in thought against the most universal 
indulgence. And what shall be said of such a 
society, but that it is polluted and poisoned at its 
fountain head, and a hideous mass of corruption 
and rottenness? There is no moral safe-guard/ 
in such a community to protect it against the most 
disastrous and desolating evils that can be commis- 
sioned to scourge its degraded and guilty inhabi- 
tants. Marriage is a term of reproach 5 the paren- 
tal relation is unknown 5 and the unhappy offspring 
of such a concubinage are thrown out upon the 
world with no restraints of parental love and wis- 
dom, and no obligations of filial affection and 
reverence ; — monsters in crime, giants in iniquity, 
and in a little while, the fit objects of such sweep- 
ing judgments as desolated the old world by the 
waters of the deluge, and the cities of the plain 
by a tempest of fire out of heaven. 

Look then for a moment at the system of po- 
hjgamy^ under which a man has a plurality of 
wives. This evil was indeed tolerated among the 
ancient patriarchs and Hebrews. But it was a 
perversion of the original institution of marriage. 
" Moses suffered it for the hardness of their h^ arts ^ 
but from the beginning, it was not so." All the 
evils of that early and idolatrous age of the world 
could not be remedied in a moment. And such 
was the state of society, that not even until the 
advent of the Saviour was the institution of mar- 
riage restored to its prima3val integrity by revok- 



196 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

ing the permission of polygamy and divorce. Ex- 
perience has abundantly and painfully proved that 
polygamy debases and brutalizes both the body and 
the mind, and renders society incapable of those 
generous and refined affections, which, if duly cul- 
tivated w^ould be found to be the inheritance even 
of our fallen nature. Where is an instance in 
which polygamy has not been the source of many 
and bitter calamities in the domestic circle and to 
the state ? Where has it reared a virtuous, heaven- 
taught progeny ? Where has it been distinguished 
for any of the moral virtues; or rather, where has 
it not been distinguished for the most fearful de- 
generacy of manners ? Where has it even been 
found friendly to population ? It has been reck- 
oned that the number of male infants exceeds that 
of females, in the proportion of nineteen to eigh- 
teen, the excess of the males scarcely providing 
for their greater consumption by war, seafaring, 
and other dangerous and unhealthy occupations. 
It seems to have been the " order of nature that 
one woman should be assigned to one man." And 
where has polygamy ever been friendly to the phy- 
sical, and intellectual character of the papulation ? 
The Turks are polygamists; and so are the 
Asiatics 5 but how inferior a people to the ancient 
Greeks and Romans ? I spoke of the domestic 
circle of the communities under the influence of 
polygamy; but is there any thing worthy of the 
name in such countries ? Let the universal seclu- 
sion of females from the eye of man, and the un- 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 197 

sleeping jealousy of their husbands furnish the 
answer. What is the domestic circle, or the so- 
ciety of friends, where the presence and all sub- 
duing influence of woman^ its brightest ornament 
and glory, is banished ? 

**Hail, woman, hail! last formed in Eden's bowers, 
Midst humming streams and fragrant breathing flowers, 
Thou art, 'mid light and gloom, through good and ill, 
Creator's glory, man's chief blessing stilh 
Thou calm'st our thoughts, as halcyons calm the sea, 
Sooth'st in distress, when servile minions flee ; 
And O without thy sun-bright smiles below, 
Life were a night, and earth a waste of wo." 

I am not extensively acquainted with the domestic 
condition either of Turkey, or Persia, nor have I 
been able to find access to those sources of infor 
mation which I have desired ; but if the few his- 
torical notices of some of the royal families of these 
countries, which have met my eye, are a faitliful 
index to the evils of polygamy, it is among the most 
fruitful sources of misery and crime. What can 
be expected from a system, where woman fades at 
twenty, is decayed at thirty, and before five and 
thirty sinks to her grave ? 

Look now at that modification and combination 
of the two preceding systems which is fon. d in 
those countries where the nuptial relation is only 
temporary, and where, while thc^ promiscuous inter- 
course of the sexes and a plurality of wives is in- 
terdicted, the frequcncif of divorces opens the 
17# 



198 SOCIAL INSTITTUIONS. 

door to the most unbridled licentiousness. In an- 
cient Rome, the matrimonial institution was re- 
garded as a mere civil contract, established for pur- 
poses of convenience and expediency, protected du- 
ring its continuance by the civil magistrate because 
it w^as deemed a blessing to society, and by the law 
of the Twelve Tables, continued only during the 
pleasure of the husband. The sober and w ell at- 
tested fact in relation to this arrangement is, that 
in all those countries where polygamy was not tol- 
erated, the frequent and rapid succession of divor- 
ces and marriages took the place of polygamy and 
introduced all its evils. Especially was this the 
case in Rome. A glance at the history of that 
nation will render us sensible of this. Such was 
the facility of obtaining divorces among the Ro- 
mans, that the nuptial tie offered not the slightest 
resistance to motives of ambition, avarice, or ir- 
regulated passion. The private history of women 
of the first rank is but a succession of marriao^es 
and divorces ^ each new marriage yielding to one 
more recent, with the same readiness with which 
itself had displaced a former union. Perhaps it 
may be thought out of place to enumerate exam- 
ples of this nature 5 and yet nothing else can give 
us a just conception of the extent of the evil. Oc- 
tavia, the daughter of the emperor Claudius, mar- 
ried Nero, and was repudiated by him for the sake 
of Poppsea. Poppsea herself was first married to 
Rufus Crispinus 5 then to Otho 5 and at length to 
Nero, by whom she w as killed by a violent blow 






SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 199 

ana at a period when the trials of her sex should 
have been her protection. For his third wife, 
Nero married Thessalina, and to possess her per- 
son, murdered her husband. Julia, the daughter 
of Augustus, was married first to Marcellus, then 
to Agrippa, and then to Tiberius. Livia Oristella 
was on the eve of a marriage with Caius Piso, when 
Caligula, enamoured of her beauty, carried her off 
by force, and in a few days after, repudiated her. 
Marc Antony, who was married to Octavia, the 
sister of Augustus, repudiated Octavia, because he 
was in love with Cleopatra. Such examples you 
will find almost endlessly diversified in the Annals 
of Tacitus. The extent to which this licence was 
carried may be also learned from the poet Martial, 
who tells us, that when the Julian law against adul- 
tery was revived as a preventive to the corruption 
of the age, within thirty days Thessalina married 
her tenth husband, thus legally evading those re- 
straints which the laws had imposed upon her 
licentiousness. What is the marriage bond worth 
in such a state of society ? And where is the state 
of society essentially better than this without the 
Bible ? It can hardly be said there is any such 
thing as social institutions where the nuptial vow 
is the sport of every caprice and passion, and where 
it is violated without penalty, and even without re- 
morse and shame. 

And now let us turn, as from a dry and parched 
desert to a fruitful land, from this (lis<i;usting sur- 
vey, and sec in how dilferent a light the Biblo 



200 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

considers the matrimonial relation from that in 
which it is viewed by Pagan and Mahometan 
lands, and by unbeUevers in divine revelation in 
lands that are Christian. This sacred Book re- 
gards it as a religious institution 5 as owing its 
origin, not to earth, but to heaven, not to the light 
of nature, but to a divine command 5 as an insti- 
tution established by the Creator himself immedi- 
ately after the formation of man, and subsequently 
put under the protection of his law. It inscribes 
in deep legible characters on every nuptial altar, 
"What God hath joined together, let not man 
put asunder !" It explicitly defines marriage to 
be the act of uniting two persons in wedlock and 
only two. " For this cause shall a man leave his 
father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and 
they twain shall be one flesh." The degrees of 
consanguinity within which this union is lawful 
are not left to the judgment of fallible men, but in 
the institutions of the inspired legislator of the 
Hebrews, are marked with perfect definiteness. 
And when once formed, the Bible pronounces this 
connection a perpetual union, and to be dissolved 
only by crime, or death. " The woman that hath 
an husband is bound by the law to her husband, 
so long as he liveth ; but if her husband be dead, 
she is losed from the law of her husband." And 
with what tenderness, does it prescribe the recip- 
rocal duties of this relation! "Husbands love 
your wives," — not according to the maxims of a 
cold and changing philosophy — not after the fash- 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 201 

ion of this world, — but " as Christ loved the Church. 
Wives submit yourselves unto your ow^n husbands, 
as unto the Lord 3 for the husband is the head of 
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church." 
Who that has seen heedless and frequent infringe- 
ments upon these precepts, has not seen the wis- 
dom of them in the disastrous consequences of 
their own folly, — not merely upon the peace, and 
harmony, and mutual confidence that ought al- 
ways to distinguish this happy relation — not mere- 
ly upon their own respectability and influence in 
the Church and in the world — but upon the cha- 
racter and conduct of their children ? Rarely 
can you find affectionate children, where there is 
an unkind husband 5 or dutiful children, where 
there is an undutiful wife. And how solemnly do 
the Scriptures protect the sanctity of the marriage 
vow! God required that the adulterer and adul- 
tress should be punished with death, lie afiirms 
before the world, " Whoremongers and adulterers, 
God will judge." With an emphasis never to be 
forgotten, he demands, " Know ye not that ye are 
the tem|)le of God, and that the Spirit of God 
dvvelleth in you ? If any man defile the temple of 
God, him shall God destroy *?" Nothing but the 
\^\h\v, can s(;t bounds to human licentiousness. 
Th(Te is a place of which the unerring voice of 
ins[)iration has said, '' lie knoweth not that the 
(lead are ther<', and that her guests are in the 
depths of hell." There is a character of which 
the same unerring voice declares, "JXone that go 



202 SOCIAL INSTITLTIOXS. 

iinto her return again, neither take they hold of 
the paths of Hfe." There is a sin of which this 
Book of God often speaks, but on which it rarely 
expatiates — a sin which the pure and holy Author 
of the Bible does no more than significantly indi- 
cate with the one hand, while with the other he 
opens to its obdurate and grovelling perpetrator 
the doors of the eternal prison, and points to the 
" lake which burns with fire." 

In speaking of the social institutions, we may 
not forget how much the Bible has done for wo- 
man. The condition of w oman w^as more exalted 
in Rome than it ever has been to my knowledge 
in any land where the day spring from on high 
has not visited her. The nations of the east have 
kept her in a state of ignorance and slavery. 
Among the Greeks, she occupied a very inferior 
sphere 5 so that if she w^as restrained from evil, she 
was helpless to do good. While the laws of 
Rome, on the other hand, allow^ed her greater li- 
berty and consideration than she had heretofore 
enjoyed, still was the sex without those restraints 
of morality and purity which alone can preserve 
her from degradation. No happy influence did 
she exert upon the public, or private welfare of the 
state. Her influence ascended to ambition 5 poli- 
ticians intrigued w ith her 5 and her liberty degen- 
erated into licentiousness. The former deluged 
the streets of the capital with its best blood ; and 
to such an extent was the latter carried, that 
among the several decrees which passed the 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 203 

senate, under the reign of Tiberius, against the 
licentiousness of female manners, it was ordained 
"that no wom.an whose grandfather, or father, or 
husband was a Roman Knight, should be allowed 
to make her person venal !" The laws of a nation 
are a faithful and instructive history of its manners. 
And what must have been the corruption of fe- 
male manners in Rome, when such a law was ne- 
cessary to suppress female licentiousness in the 
highest ranks of society ? If such was the cha- 
racter of a Roman baronness, what must have 
been that of the subordinate classes ? There can 
scarcely be a more degrading view of woman than 
this, unless it be the condition which she now pre- 
sents in pagan lands. And what is that condition, 
now, in the nineteenth century of the Christian 
era ? Hated and despised from her birth, and her 
birth itself esteemed a calamity — in some coun- 
tries not even allowed the rank of a moral and 
responsible agent — so tenderly alive to her own 
degradation, that she acquiesces in the murder of 
her female offspring — immured from infancy — with- 
out education — married without her consent — in a 
multitude of instances, sold by her parents — re- 
fused the confidence of her husband, and banished 
from his tabk; — on her husband's death, doomed to 
the funeral pile, or to contempt that renders life a 
burden : — such is her degraded nnd pitiable condi- 
tion, in almost all exce|)t Christian lands. Th(» 
Bible has an apj>r()priate place ff)r woman, a place 
for which she is fitted and in which she shines. It 



204 SOCIAL IXSTITI'TIONS. 

elevates her, but assigns her her proper sphere. It 
does indeed exclude her from the corruption of 
the camp and the debates of the forum. It does 
not invite her to the professor's chair, nor conduct 
her to the bar, nor make her welcome to the pul- 
pit, nor admit her to the place of magistracy. It 
bids her beware how she overleaps the delicacy 
of her sex, and listens to the doctrines of effemi- 
nate debaters, or becomes the dupe of modern re- 
formers and fashionable journalists. It asks not to 
hear her gentle voice in the popular assembly, and 
even ''^suffers her not to speak in the Church of 
God.'^^ It claims not for her the right of suffrage, 
nor any immunity by which she may " usurp au- 
thority over the man." And yet it gives her her 
throne ; for she is the queen of the domestic cir- 
cle. It is the bosom of her family. It is the heart 
of her husband and children. It is the supremacy 
in all that interesting domain, where love, and ten- 
derness, and refinement of thought and feeling pre- 
side. It is the privilege of making her husband hap- 
py and honoured, and her sons and her daughters 
the ornaments of human society. It is the sphere 
of piety, prudence, diligence in the domestic sta- 
tion, and a holy and devout life. It is the sphere 
that was occupied by Hannah, the mother of 
Samuel 5 by Elizabeth, the mother of John ; and 
by Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is '• the orna- 
ment of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the 
sight of God, is of great price." It is the respect 
and esteem of mankind. It is that silent, unob- 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 205 

served, unobtrusive influence by which she accom- 
plishes more for her race than many whose names 
occupy a broad space on the page of history. 
More than this, too, does the Bible do for woman. 
It opens to her the stores of knowledge. It pro- 
scribes her no intellectual advancement. It com- 
mits to her intelligent culture the minds of the 
rising generation. It tells her that her peculiar 
province is to embellish and adorn. It opens be- 
fore her the loveliest spheres of active benevolence. 
And while it tells her to be a " keeper at home," 
it at the same time points her to the poor, the 
afliicted, the widow, the orphan, the sick and the 
dying, and says, " Pure religion and undefiled be- 
fore God and the Father, is to visit the fatherless 
and widows in their afflictions, and to keep herself 
unspotted from the world." It does more for her 
than for the stronger sex, because it gives her 
more piety than it gives to pious men ; more ar- 
dency and devotion in her religious affections; 
more numerous, as well as more illustrious exam- 
ples of converting grace ^ a greater reward, and a 
brighter crown. Nor can she ever know what 
she ovv(\s to the Bible, until she is presented by 
her great Lord and husband, faultless before tho 
throne. 

But l(;t us turn a moment to another of the so- 
cial relations: I mean that which exists between 
parents and clfiUJrrn, I have often wond( rc^d 
why there are so f(^w scenes of domestic joy painted 
in i)agan history ; and whence it is that we never 
J8 



206 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

find access to the bosom of a well regulated and 
happy family in pagan lands. JMay not the reason 
be that the materials for the picture never existed ? 
Pagan historians there were, of a high standard of 
excellence 5 and pagan poets, whose classical sub- 
limity and beauty it would be treason to the cause 
of a polished and elegant hterature to question. 
But their themes are conflict and revolution ; dei- 
fied heroes and heroines; a base and corrupting 
mythology 5 the beauties and tranquillity of pasto- 
ral life 5 or the passion of a shephercf for some 
beautiful boy. Though many of the pagan poets 
maintain the first rank of excellence, and abound 
with imagery that might naturally have found cul- 
ture and ahment amid the more virtuous and lovely 
scenes of domestic joy, yet do these scenes seem, 
even to their pohshed minds, to be almost inter- 
dicted themes. Before the introduction of Chris- 
tianity, there was a strong tendency to sacrifice the 
domestic to a more public life. The citizen of 
Rome and Athens was distinguished, not for his 
domestic virtues, but for his literary attainments 
and his public valor. He employed his life in the 
field, in the academy, or in the forum, but found 
little to interest him at home. He lived abroad 
amid the alluring example of a licentious world ; 
he threw himself into the current of its seductive 
temptations ; but rarely found interest and happi- 
ness in the society of his children. Home was a 
word dissevered from all those high and holy asso- 
ciations, inseparable from it in a Christian family 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 207 

He was known rather as a citizen, than as a father, 
a son, a friend. He had indeed his household gods, 
his altar and his fireside ; but he had no voice of 
supplication and praise — no bond of God's eternal 
covenant sealing blessing to him and to his for a 
great while to come. In ancient Rome, under the 
emperors, it was even considered an advantage to 
be without children ; and fathers often renounced 
them for the estimation and flattery which were 
showered upon them by those who might be ex- 
pectants of their inheritance. More than once has 
an affluent citizen proved too powerful for his ac- 
cusers, simply because he was childless. And it 
was no strange occurrence for children as fre- 
quently to become the accusers, as the advocates 
of a father, and as ready to destroy, as to protect 
him against his enemies. A father pleading for his 
life, while his son stands forth his accuser — what a 
scene were this in Christian lands ! Nero poisoned 
his mother ; and Seneca, one of the wisest and best 
of the heathen philosophers was accessory to the 
base transaction. Where in all the annals of 
Christendom, is registered so foul a deed ! Men 
never sin so obstinately, as when they sin from 
principle. And even at the present day, it is 
deemed a religious duty in pagan lands, for parents 
to destroy their children; and, as though God had 
with awful severity inflicted the legem taUonis^ in 
return, for children to destroy their parents. 

Hut Nee iiow the Scriptures s|)oak of this n^la- 
tioii. Mark how tlu^y honour and protect it, and 



208 SOCIAL INSTITUTIOIVS. 

how they define and enforce its corresponding 
rights and duties. To the parent they say, " Train 
up a child in the way he should go, and when he 
is old he will not depart from it." To the child 
they say, " Honour thy father and thy mother, that 
thy days may be long in the land which the Lord 
thy God giveth thee." To the parent they say, 
^^ And ye fathers provoke not your your children 
to wrath, lest they be discouraged." To the child 
they say, and in language never to be forgotten, 
*' The eye that mocketh at his father, and refuseth 
to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall 
pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." 
Under the Mosaic law, the man that cursed his 
parent was surely to he put to death j the men 
of his city "should stone him with stones, that he 
die." The whole scope and spirit of the Bible 
consider the appropriate performance of the rela- 
tive duties which result from the relation of parent 
and child as laying the foundation of every private 
and public virtue. They recoil from the arbitrary 
power and cruel tyranny of a parent, and from the 
hardened impiety and obstinate stubbornness of a 
child. The Spartans venerated age 5 but how 
much more energetic and authoritative is the Ian 
guage of the Jewish lawgiver when he says, " Thou 
shalt rise up before the face of the hoary head, and 
honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God." 
Have my youthful readers been instructed by ex- 
ample, by precept, by unsleeping vigilance and un- 
wearied eflfortj and by a discipline equitable and 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 209 

kind, in habits of virtue; have their minds been en- 
lightened and their wants suppUed 5 and are they 
conscious that it has been the united aim of their 
parents by their self-denial, their counsels and 
prayers to render them religious, useful and happy; 
permit me to remind them, they owe this distinc- 
tion to the Bible. And where is the parent who 
is surrounded with the tokens of filial piety, and 
whose heart has been habitually comforted by all 
that is tender and grateful in the affections, and 
respectful and dutiful in the deportment of his 
children, but feels that for all this he is indebted 
to the same divine source ? There is a beautiful 
incident in the life of Christ, which illustrates the 
influence of the gospel upon domestic life. It was 
among those last sublime and tender exhibitions of 
his nature which took place upon the cross. For- 
giveness, love, and resignation had already beamed 
divinely through the horrors of that scene, and at- 
tracted the eye of the believer to a picture where 
otherwise all was so sad and revolting. The Saviour 
was in his bitterest agony. The guilt of dying men 
was weighing upon his soul ; interests incalculably 
vast were absorbing his attention, and he might 
well be supposed to have lost sight of those by 
whom he was surrounded. In such an hour, and 
amid the d<^pths of his own sorrow, who would 
wonder had he overlooked the claims of earthly 
kindrcjd ! But at a little distance stood his mothtr. 
Near her, he b(;held the youngt^st and b(\st beloved 
of his disciples. Those earthly ties were about to 
18* 



210 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



1 



be sundered, and he would not leave her without a 
support to her advancing years, nor the young dis- 
ciple without a guide for his inexperienced youth. 
" Woman," said he to the first, " behold thy son T' 
To the latter, " Sen, behold thy mother ! And 
from that hour, that disciple took her to his own 
home." 

The history of pagan nations is an instructive 
study, though it is little else than a narrative of 
crime. It teaches us how helpless man is to guide 
himself in the path of virtue and happiness by his 
own unaided powers. It teaches us how much 
we are indebted to the Bible 5 how much of our 
social advantages we owe to its pure spirit which 
has breathed over the chaos of nations, and 
brought order, light, beauty and fruitfulness from 
the shapeless void. It teaches us to be thankful 
that " the lines are fallen to us in p.^^-isant places," 
where the endeared names of husbana, w ife, parent, 
child, speak with a tenderness to our hearts which 
we cannot appreciate, unless we have traced in 
the history of the past, how little these ties have 
been valued. No author sets this in a stronger 
light, than Tacitus in his Annals of the Roman 
Empire. The hand of that masterly historian 
must have trembled as he delineated the picture. 
There you will find a narrative of all that can 
shock the tenderest sensibilities of our nature 5 all 
that man can perpetrate in crime; all that the 
arch enemy can bring up from his dark kingdom 
to disturb and ruin. Suspicion, massacre, and 



SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 211 

licentiousness — the conspiracy of wives against 
their husbands, and husbands against their wives — 
men every where falhng upon their own sword — 
famihes whose peace is disturbed by violence and 
ruined by intrigue — children sacrificed by the 
machinations of a mother — the wife murdering 
her husband for the purpose of wedding her para- 
mour — women " practised in the trade of poison- 
ing" — this is paganism and in the most enlightened 
age of Rome. But it is not Christianity. Let a 
man compare the present state of society in Pro- 
testant countries with the state of society under 
the dynasty of the Caesars, and he cannot fail to 
see what the Bible has done for the social institu- 
tions. Let him go into the interior of the first 
and most polished famihes in Rome, and he will 
bless God for a supernatural revelation. Let him 
mark the dificrence with which the social relations 
are regarded by the wisest and most virtuous of 
pagan moralists, and a well instructed Christian 
teacher ; let him see how in Christian lands, they 
bear the test of experience, and endure the proof 
of trials — how the spirit that sustains them grows 
cold only in death, and is extinguished only in 
the grave ; and tlicn let him go into lands unen- 
lightened by the gospel, and observe how the 
sweetest charities of life are destroyed by the 
suspicions of (jnvy, the jealousies of love, the vio- 
lence of ambition, tlui tliirst for power, and at best 
decay when tlie llower of beauty and the jj^races 
of youth are gone ] and he will adore the Father 



S18 SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 

of mercies for that blessed Book " more to be de- 
sired than gold, yea than much fine gold. 

And yet are there those who would have us be- 
lieve that the religion of the Bible is a morose and 
unsocial religion. If to have no sympathy with 
wicliedness is to be unsocial, then is it an unsocial 
rehgionj but if to promote all that is kind and 
virtuous, and pure and true, — if to take pleasure 
in all that subdues what is malignant and ferocious, 
what is ambitious and cruel — if to sympathize with 
all that elevates and transforms the human cha- 
racter and makes it the ornament of human socie- 
ty here, and the glory of angelic society hereafter, 
be social ; then is it truly and in the highest de- 
gree friendly to social institutions. There cannot 
be a more gross misconception than that the reli- 
gion of the Scriptures is an unsocial religion. 
Every where it inculcates the gentle and kind af- 
fections. If there be softness, sweetness, cheerful- 
ness and honour in the intercourse between man 
and man, to what are they to be attributed, if not 
to the power of that heaven-born " charity, which 
suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, 
which vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up ;" 
which " doth not behave itself unseemly, and seek- 
eth not her own 5" which " beareth all things, be- 
lieveth all things, hopeth all things 5" without 
w^hich we " are become as sounding brass, or a 
tinkling cymbal!" We see not how an unsocial 
spirit can spring from such a source. And yet so 
it is, that the Bible is made to answer for all the 






SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 213 

moroscness and severity in the world, when it is 
known to enjoin all that is benevolent and cheerful 
in the social affections. Let every Christian man 
therefore bear in mind, that the Bible, with won- 
derful wisdom, adjusts its claims to the relations 
which men sustain to time as well as eternity 5 to 
this world, as well as the world to come 5 and that 
it is one of the distinguished glories of its rehgion, 
that while it lives above the world, and walks with 
God, instead of retiring from earth and renouncing 
the intercourse of social life, it carries its disciples 
into the midst of human society to purify, reform, 
and elevate it, and there " let their light so shine 
before men, that they seeing their good works, 
may glorify their Father which is in heaven." 



LECTURE VIII. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE UPON SLAVERY. 



While treating of the influence of the Bible 
upon the Social Institutions, there is one subject 
we cannot pass over in silence, notwithstanding 
the difficulties attending it. I allude to the rela- 
tion existing between master and slave. The dif- 
ficulties are intrinsic, growing out of the subject 
itself, as well as the enterprise and character of 
the age. At the present day, and in the present 
condition of our country, it is a subject of great 
importance; and it becomes every one in forming 
his judgment concerning it, to turn to that sacred 
book in which we profess to find a guide and m- 
gtructor, and submit his opinions to the unerring 
decisions of the oracles of God. I do not know 
that I have any personal interest in giving a per- 
verted, or partial view of this vexed question. In- 
deed I find it no easy matter to take such a view 



SLAVERY. 215 

of itj as satisfies my own mind. The Bible is the 
fountain from which we are to draw, not only our 
rehgious doctrines, but our rules of duty. " I 
have always observed," said an able and wise 
divine, " that when people become better than the 
Bible, they are very apt to be wrong." We cer- 
tainly cannot depend upon the reasonings of men, 
however plausible their arguments, as we may de- 
pend upon the decisions of God. All our notions 
of property, all our abstract reasonings upon the 
rights of man and his natural freedom and equality, 
all our principles of moral science and in all their 
varied applications, must be ultimately brought to 
the infallible standard revealed from heaven. God 
is our teacher. It is not for man to sit in judg- 
ment upon any of the truths which he has made 
known. " God never left his works for man to 
mend." His wisdom is unerring; nor is there any 
greater presumption than for us to refuse to make 
the Bible the standard of our duty, and be satisfied 
with that standard. Have we a written communi- 
cation from heaven, whose author is a being of 
universal charity, boundless knowledge, and eter- 
nal truth ? Then from this source, and this source 
alone, are we bound to derive our opinions and 
our instructions on every subject on which it ad- 
dress(!S us. Not more truly " would an infid(^l be 
labouring in his vocation" in charging errors iipou 
the insj>ired penmen of this sacred book, than in 
relying upon his own reason as the ultimate^ stand- 
aril of moral duty, and in taking upon himself to 



216 SLAVERY. 

teach the inspired writers, rather than suffer them 
to teach him. It is an unhappiness that the pub- 
lic mind is in such a state of febrile excitement in 
relation to slavery, that it is difficult to speak the 
whole truth in relation to this subject without 
giving offence. But we may not forget, that this 
state of feeling has nothing to do with our appli- 
cation of the great principles of moral duty as 
revealed from heaven. It decides nothing 5 is 
variable and fluctuating 5 while truth and duty, as 
God has revealed them, remain the same. 

Slavery has been defined by Dr. Paley, to be, 
''the obligation to labour for the benefit of the 
master, without the contract, or consent of the 
servant." This relation has existed in a great 
variety of forms, and degrees of severity. Very 
often it has been a condition marked by injustice 
and cruelty, attended with no adequate remunera- 
tion for labour, great civil disabilities and personal 
suffering, great domestic wrongs, and great intel- 
lectual and moral degradation. And there are 
instances, as facts show, in which it has existed un- 
accompanied by any of these evils. These are 
evils that have been wickedly superinduced by the 
cruelty and cupidity of men, rather than evils 
which necessarily and essentially belong to the 
relation itself. 

Long before the Bible was given to the world, 
slavery had an extensive prevalence throughout 
the oriental nations. So far from introducing the 
evil, it found the earth filled with it, and has silently 



d 



SLAVERY* 217 

and gradually so meliorated the relation between 
the master and the slave, that in the progress of 
its principles and spirit, it must ultimately either 
abohsh this relation, or leave it resting upon a 
basis of the purest benevolence, and the source of 
mutual advantage. This, we purpose to show is 
the appropriate influence of the Bible upon slavery. 
Nor do we design to extend our remarks beyond 
this single point. What is the legitimate influence 
of tlie Bible upon slavery ? This is the only 
question which falls within the range of appro- 
priate discussion in these lectures. 

We cannot take an intelligent view of this ques- 
tion, without a glance at the condition of slavery 
in those countries where the influence of the Bible 
has never been enjoyed. The great antiquity of 
the Assyrian empire, extending beyond the period 
when letters were invented, leaves the customs of 
the ancient Assyrians in great obscurity. Five of 
the Canaanitish tribes were the vassals of Cher- 
dorlaomcr for twelve years, and obtained their li- 
berty by an open revolt. Abram was an inhabitant 
of Assyria, and at the time of his recovery of Lot 
from Chcrdorlaomcr and his allies, he was the 
proprietor of several hundred " trained servants, 
born in his house." From the predatory nature 
of their wars, it is probable that the condition of 
slaves in Assyria was not essentially d liferent from 
the condition of the same class of men in the sur- 
rounding countries. Th(^ manner in which slaves 
were treated among tlie Babylonians, the Persians, 



218 SLAVERY. 

and other nations of remote antiquity, was such 
as " excluded them from every privilege of society, 
and almost every blessing of life." They were de- 
pendant on the caprice of imperious masters, and 
were unprotected by the laws. They might be 
tortured, maimed, or put to death, at the arbitrary 
will of their masters. In these early ages, in 
times of great public calamity, men often sold 
themselves for slaves. While Joseph was the 
prime minister of Pharaoh, and during the seven 
years' famine, the people came to him and said, 
'' Buy us and our land for bread 5 and we will be 
servants unto Pharaoh." Joseph granted their 
request, and said unto them, "Behold I have 
bought you this day, and your land, for Pharaoh.'' 
Before this time, Egypt was a limited monarchy. 
The people were free, and had lands independent 
of the crown. Now they became vassals, feuda- 
tory tenants, and the government despotic. The 
condition of slaves in Egypt we know was suffi- 
ciently abject and degraded. We need no greater 
evidence of this, than Pharaoh's treatment of the 
children of Israel, and more especially his cruel 
order to the midwives. Nor were they enemies, 
nor the children of enemies, who were subjected 
to this severe servitude, but the descendants of a 
family who had been the saviours of Egypt, and 
the builders up of royal power. Nations whose 
unmixed ferocity and thirst for revenge were more 
generally satiated by the indiscriminate butchery 
of their enemies 3 who denied them even those 



SLAVERY. 219 

common funeral rites, which in the opinion of the 
times, were necessary to the repose of the soul 
after death 5 who directed even their captive kings 
to be taken to prison and slain ; regarded it as a 
mitigation of the laws of war to substitute slavery 
for death. Adult males were usually put to the 
sword, and the women and children captured and 
enslaved. A distinguished writer on the principles 
of political law, remarks, " In former times, it was 
a custom almost universally established, that those 
who were made prisoners in a just and solemn war, 
whether they had surrendered themselves, or were 
taken by main force, became slaves the moment 
they were conducted into some place dependant 
on the conqueror. And this right was exercised 
on all persons whatever, even on those who hap- 
pened to be in the enemy's country at the time 
when the war suddenly broke out. The prisoners 
themselves and their posterity were reduced to the 
same condition." In some countries, insolvent 
debtors were sold for slaves. There were periods 
in the Roman history, when if the debt were not 
discharged within thirty days after a number of 
citations, by the direction of the prictor the pub- 
lic crier proclaimed in the forum, "Let him be 
punished with death, or sold beyond the Tiber !" 
In the institutes of Justinian, slaves are said to be- 
come such in three ways — by birth, where the 
motber was a slave ; by captivity in war ; and by 
the voluntary sale of himself by a freeman. In 



220 SLATERY. 

Greece, the disproportion between freemen and 
slaves was nearly in the ratio of ninety to four 
hundred. This large portion of the population, 
according to the account given by Mitford, were 
not only slaves, but nothing could exceed the in- 
sult, the injury, the cruelty, to which they were 
subjected. The Spartan youth hunted them as 
wild beasts, for the sake of making themselves ex- 
pert in the use of arms. '' A scanty and disgust- 
ing dress, and dog-skin cap, distinguished them 
from all the rest of the inhabitants. Those who 
were too robust had to be enfeebled by various 
kinds of ill-treatment ^ and if the masters did not 
do this, they became themselves liable to a penalty. 
Every slave annually received a certain number of 
stripes to remind him that he was a slave ! Hymns 
of a nobler kind they were not allowed to sing 5 
but only gay and sensual songs. To complete 
their degradation, they w^ere sometimes compelled 
to sing songs in disgrace and ridicule of themselves ; 
and to the same purpose they were also compelled 
to perform indecent dances. In order to make 
the sons of the Spartans loathe the vice of drunk- 
enness, the slaves were compelled to intoxicate 
themselves in public assemblies. When they be- 
came too numerous, they were murdered clandes- 
tinely ; every year, at a certain period, the young 
Spartans, clad in armour, used to hunt them ; and 
to prevent their increase, they were killed with 



SLAVERY. 221 

daggers."* The same author relates an affecting 
anecdote respecting the slaves of Sparta. When, 
during the Peloponesian war, the Spartans became 
apprehensive of the influence of their slaves, they 
made proclamation that the most meritorious and 
heroic among them should present themselves be- 
fore the magistrate for the honour of freemen. Tn 
conformity with this invitation, two thousand pre- 
sented themselves for this honour. The offer, 
however, was but a lure to detect the most aspir- 
ing and generous minded of those unhappy beings, 
and drew out their choicest spirits. Instead of 
the promised freedom, all were inhumanly slain, in 
accordance with the atrocious policy of that se- 
vere and sanguinary state. The slaves of Greece 
were generally branded like cattle. According to 
the laws of Lycurgus, they could neither be eman- 
cipated, nor sold. In Sicily and Italy, they were 
chained and confined to work in dungeons. Rome 
was a continual market for slaves, where they were 
commonly exposed naked. It is computed by the 
historian. Gibbon, that this class composed one 
half of the inhabitants of that extensive empire, 
and could not have been less than sixty milhons. 
As a body of men, they were considered danger- 
ous to the welfare of the state, and were therefore 
depressed in every way. They were left entirely 
at the disposal of tlieir masters, who might treat 



* The Nature and Moral Iiifliioncc of Heathenism, by Tlio- 
luck. See Biblical Kip. lor 1832. 

ID* 



222 SLAVERY. 

them in whatever manner they pleased, and who 
were invested with absolute power and authority 
over them. The aged, the sick, and the infirm, 
were carried to an island on the Tiber, where they 
were suifered to perish. Vedius Apollo, an inti- 
mate friend of Augustus, fed his fishes with the 
flesh of his slaves. Nor was this degradation of 
limited extent. A single individual in Rome had 
slaves to the amount of four thousand, one hun- 
dred and sixteen. When the master was murder- 
ed, and the murderer could not be detected, all 
his slaves, with their wives and children, w^ere put 
to death. There was a class of slaves among the 
the Romans, called the Ostiarii, who were chained 
like watch-dogs before the houses. The laws of 
Rome regarded them all simply as property 5 not 
as persons^ but as things '^ and as far as they 
could do so from the nature of the case itself, 
hardly distinguished them from brutes. Nor was 
it until the time of the emperor Adrian, more 
than a hundred years after the birth of Christ, 
that masters were divested of the arbitrary power 
over their slaves which they possessed in the days 
of the republic and the Csesars. 

Such was the condition of slavery in pagan 
lands. Such vvas essentially its condition when 
God called Abram from an idolatrous country, to 
make him the founder of the Hebrew State. 
Such was its condition when God gave the moral 
and civil law to Moses on Sinai and in the wilder 
ness. Such was its condition when Nehemiah 



SLAVERY. 223 

the Hebrew reformer, a man of no common integ- 
rity and boldness, roused the minds of that de- 
generate community to a conviction of their viola- 
ted obhgations. Such was its condition when the 
Saviour descended as the great Teacher of men, 
and when his Apostles so faithfully and fearlessly 
published and enforced the great truths and duties 
of the Christian dispensation. Such was its con- 
dition during all the progressive revelations which 
God gave to men down to the period when the 
sacred canon was completed. Slavery most cer- 
tainly had existed, and still existed in its worst 
forms, and with all its most fearful and appalling 
attendants and consequences. It existed exten- 
sively among the Jews, even down to the days of 
the apostles. Tacitus mentions that there were 
20,000 slaves in the army of Simon when Vespa- 
sian was marching against Jerusalem. 

Here then, in view of these plain and affecfing 
facts, we propose a grave question. How did the 
Scriptures treat this solemn subject ? What is 
the course which Moses and the Prophets, Christ 
and the Apostles pursued in relation to this deeply 
interesting matter ? 

It is not dillicult to conceive of a course which 
they mighty and in the judgment of some persons, 
ought to have adopted. They might have reason- 
ed thus. — Slavery is wrong. No man, no set of 
men have a right to deprive another of his per- 
sonal liberty. The obligation of scTvice at tho 
discretion of another is void. Without the con- 



224 SLAVERY. 

tract, or consent, or crime of the servant, such an 
obligation is in all cases, sinful. All men are 
born equally free and independent, and have the 
same right to their freedom which they have to 
property, or life. In all its features, the whole 
system of slavery is utterly at w ar with the law of 
nature and the law of God. Justice and humanity 
shrink from it. It is unjust in the same sense and 
for the same reason, as it is to steal, to rob, or to 
murder. It destroys the lives, depraves the morals, 
corrupts the purity, and ruins the souls of men. It 
discourages industry, makes a mock of the marriage 
vov/, shuts out the light of religious truth from more 
than one half mankind, and reduces them to a 
degradation below the dignity and responsibility 
of intellectual and immortal beings. It is an 
evil therefore, that may not be endured. The 
owners of slaves must every where be denounced 
as wicked men. They must be held up as the 
objects of public censure and obloquy. They are 
giants in cruelty and crime. They are men- 
stealers, robbers, pirates, and may no more have a 
place in the Church of God on the earth, than 
they can be admitted into the kingdom of heaven. 
The system of which they are the abettors must 
be put down. No matter by what revolutions in 
Church or State 5 no matter by what agitations, 
or insurrections; it must be put down. It is a 
sin, and cannot be abolished too soon. Duty is 
©ur's, events are God's. No matter how disash 



SLAVERY. 225 

trous the consequences of arresting it, it must be 
arrested, be they what they may ! 

Such a course as this I say the Bible might have 
recommended. And why did it not recommend 
such a course ? It was not from inadvertence, be- 
cause it frequently adverted to the subject. It must 
have been from design. The evils of slavery 
were under the eye of the sacred writers, and met 
them every where. They were wise and good 
men, and under the plenary inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost. They were divinely instructed in the 
best method of fulfilhng their great commission, and 
of carrying the designs of it into execution. The 
great Author of the Bible exercised his wisdom in 
this feature of his revelation as well as in every 
other. Nor can it be doubted by any, except those 
who would invalidate all confidence in his word, 
that he has selected the best method of instructing 
the world upon this important subject. There was 
in the nature of things, hut one best method '^ and 
that method was not only known to God, but he 
was under a moral necessity of adopting it. Those 
who find fault with the instructions of the Bible in 
relation to slavery, directly arraign the rectitude, 
goodness, and wisdom of him who does all things 
after the counsel of his own will. Nor may it bo 
supposed there was any want of sensibility in the 
sacred writers to the deplorable state of the slave 
population. Nor did they want firmness and en- 
ergy of charat ter ; but were every where bold, 
determined, and steady to their purpose. Tliey 



226 SLAVEPwY. 

were never rash, but never fearful of opposing them- 
selves to the swelling, menacing tide of the corrupt 
propensities and passions of men. nor hesitated 
to do all that they could for truth and right, for 
religion and virtue, for order and happiness, and 
for the protection of the oppressed, however for- 
midable the opposition they met v/ith, however 
great the sacrifices, or however inaminent the dan- 
ger. The reason why they did not pursue the 
course to which we have referred, must have been 
that it was not the true and right course. It was 
neither right in itself, nor best for the master or 
the slave, for the church or the world. 

What then icas the course which the Bible pur 
sued ? In giving this book to mankind, its >\Tse 
and benevolent Author undertook the work of a 
great reformer. His object was to benefit the 
world, and subdue it ultimately to himself, by set- 
ting in motion a series of moral infiuences, that 
were silently to operate for good among the na- 
tions, and gradually to renew the face of the earth. 
His plans were vast and magnificent, and would 
not be accomplished in a day. ]\or did he fail to 
count the cost of the enterprise. If there were 
evils in human society, he modified and mitigated 
them, because to have done more, would in the 
end have been to accomplish less. If there were 
existing institutions, long and deeply imbedded in 
the frame of human society, the abuse of which 
could not but be deplored, he so regulated the in- 
stituiions themselves as to sever them from their 



SLAVERY. 227 

abuses, while he breathed into all his moral in- 
structions and government, a spirit that should 
finally eradicate all evil, and fill the earth with ho- 
liness and salvation. 

Nor is there any subject to which these remarks 
are more applicable than that of slavery. Let us 
turn our thoughts m the first place, to what may 
be gathered fi*om the Old Testament in rela- 
tion to this subject. In glancing at the early his- 
tory of the Hebrews, and before the giving of the 
law to Moses, we have already seen that the fa- 
thers of that nation, the patriarchs, possessed slaves 
in great numbers. And yet we do not find that 
God reproved these holy men for being the propri- 
etors of slaves. He did not at that time forbid 
slavery. Though, if he designed to do so at all, it 
would seem to us to have been the proper time for 
him to have required Abram to emancipate his 
slaves, yet he made no such requisition. He had 
just called him out from the corruptions of a pa- 
gan empire, for the purpose of founding in his family 
his visible church, and in them of sotting an exam- 
ple to the world of a society tViat should be under 
his own guidance and direction. And yet he did 
not make it a condition of Abram's adoption into 
his family that hc^ should give freedom to the ser- 
vants, that were bought with his money, that were 
born in his house, or that were given to him by 
Abirnchu'h. Instead of this, lie .sv> />/r recoii^nizos 
and sanctions the pr()|)ri(?torshij) of this patriarch 
in his servants, that he required every male among 



228 SLAVERY. 

them to be circumcised, and claimed for them all 
the privileges of the covenant, of which circumcis- 
ion was the seal.* 

If we pass from the days of Abraham to those 
of Moses, we find a moral law revealed from hea- 
ven, and a code of civil statutes, in both of which 
the existence of a state of servitude is distinctly 
recognized, without being forbidden. In the fourth 
commandment it is written, " The seventh day is 
the sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt 
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh- 
ter, nor thy man servant^ nor thy maid sertant^ 
And in the tenth commandment it is written, 
" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house, thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbours wife, nor his man 
servant^ nor his maid servant.'^ If from the 
moral, we turn to the civil code of the Hebrews, 
we find the following facts. As one of its great 
and capital principles, it forbids the slate trade^ 
or the seizing of those who are ^re^ and selHng 
them as slaves. "He that stealeth a man and 
selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death." This is the dehberate 
judgment of the divine mind in relation to every 
branch of this nefarious traffic. It is an oflfence 
punished with death. The original man-stealer 
and the receiver of the stolen person must lose 
their life under the Mosaic law. The slave cap- 



* Gen. 17: 10—13, and 27. 



SLAVERY. 229 

tain and the negro dealer are here admonished of 
their reward. This code also recognizes the dis- 
tinction between slaves and hired servants. " It 
shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest 
him away from thee 5 for he bath been worth dou- 
ble a hired servant unto thee, in serving thee 
these six years."* So that when this code speaks 
of servants^ it speaks of them not as hired free- 
men, but as slaves. The Mosaic law refers to the 
following ways in which a Hebrew might lose his 
liberty. In extreme poverty, he might sell him- 
self "If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be 
waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not 
compel him to serve as a hond servant^ but as a 
hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with 
thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of the 
Jubilee."! A father might sell his children. " If 
a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant, she 
shall not go out as the men servants do."J Insol- 
vent debtors became the slaves of their creditors. 
" My husband is dead, and the creditor is come to 
take my two sons to be bondmcn."|| A thief, if he 
had not the money to pay the fine exacted from 
him by the law, was by the sentence of the judge 
to be sold for the benefit of him whom he had 
robbed. "If a thief be found, he shall make full 
restitution*, if he have nothing, then he shall be 
sold for his theft."§ As the Hebrews were liable 



♦Dc'ut. 15: IR. and L.'v. 25: 39, 40. f T^f^v. 25: 39. 
X Ex(h1. 21:7 II II Kings 4:1. ^ Ivxod. 22 : 3. 
20 



230 SLAVERY. 

to be taken prisoners of war, and sold for slaves, 
so a Hebrew slave who had been ransomed from a 
gentile, might be sold by him who ransomed him 
to one of his own nation, and the price of his re- 
demption was ''reckoned from the year that he 
was sold, unto the year of jubilee."* The Hebrews 
were also allowed to hold slaves whom they pur- 
chased from the surrounding nations, who should 
be '' their possession, and an inheritance for their 
children after them."t AH the prisoners of war 
also that were taken by the Hebrews, were slaves. 
"When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight 
against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it 
shall be, if it make an answer of peace, — that all 
the people that shall be found therein shall be 
tributaries unto thee and shall serve thee. But if 
it make war against thee, then thou shalt beseige 
it, and shalt smite every male thereof with the 
edge of the sword, but the women and the little 
ones shalt thou take unto thyselfj In these 
seven ways, slavery might originate among the 
Hebrews. And it is worthy to be distinctly re- 
marked, that with the exception of those slaves 
that were purchased from surrounding nations, and 
those who were taken in war, it was a state of ser- 
vitude originating with the consent of the servant, 
or growing out of his fault. It was also a servi- 



*Lev. 25: 50. -fLev. 25; 45. JDeut. 20: 14. and 
Numbers, 31 : 18—35. 



SLAVERY. 231 

tude greatly modified by very many important 
mitigations. Every where the Jewish law is most 
scrupulously protective of the person of the slave, 
while it allows for the master's peculiar relation, 
on the ground that the servant is " his money.'' 
While it recognizes the right of the master to the 
possession of the servant, it recognizes no rights 
that are inconsistent with the high nature of his 
being, but is itself the guardian of every right, 
founded on his obligations as a moral and respon- 
sible agent, to God or his fellow men. As in the 
patriarchal, so it was in the Mosaic age : the slave 
passed under the bonds of God's covenant, was 
consecrated by his master to God, and was educa- 
ted in his fear. The la\v guarded his person from 
severity, in some cases by the death of the master, 
and in others by his own immediate freedom. He 
enjoyed all religious rites and privileges, not ex- 
cepting the sabbath, the year of jubilee, the an- 
nual festivals, the new moons, the day of atone- 
ment, and other seasons of appointed rest. He 
had a sure and certain support, and was entitled to 
ah affection and kindness. Every where God ad- 
monished the Hebrews against treating their slaves 
as they themselves had been treated in Egypt, and 
as slaves were generally treated in surrounding 
countries. In addition to this, let it be borne in 
mind, that no Hebrew^ could by the laws of IMoses, 
be a slave for a longer term than six years, unless 
by intermarrying with his master's servants, or for 
other causes, he chose to remain in servitude 3 and 



292 SLAVERY. 

at the end of the six years, he was to be sent out 
liberally furnished. A female Hebrew servant also, 
frequently became the wife of her master, or the 
wife of his son 5 and in that event was entitled to 
all the privileges of honourable matrimony, or a 
lawful daughter. I cannot help thinking, that the 
system of servitude under the laws of Moses, so 
far as it regarded slaves who were themselves He- 
brews, was not unlike the system of apprentice- 
ship in Great Britian, and in this country, where 
a child is bound out for a term of years, and at 
the end of that period the parent receives a stipu- 
lated compensation for his services. 

The two most revolting features of slavery 
among this people are recorded in the following 
paragraphs. " If a man smite his servant or his 
maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he 
shall surely be punished;" and the punishment 
was death. ''Notwithstanding, if he continue a 
day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his 
money." The reason of this law I suppose to be 
this. If the servant survived a number of days, it 
could not be so clearly proved that the punish- 
ment occasioned his death, as to justify the death 
of the master. It might rather be charitably pre- 
sumed, that he died from some other cause. 
There would not be conclusive evidence of delibe- 
rate malice. The pecuniary interest which the 
master had in his servant was a presumption in his 
favour, and the law would not condemn unless 
on the strongest testimony. And was not this 



SLAVERY. 233 

right; and are not, ought not all penal laws to be 
construed as favourably as possible to the accused ? 
The other paragraph is this. " Of thy bond-men 
and thy bond-maids which thou shalt have, shall 
be of the heathen that are round about you. Of 
them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. 
Moreover, of the children of the strangers, that do 
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of 
their families that are with you, which they beget 
in your land : and they shall be your possession. 
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your 
children after you, to inherit them for a posses- 
sion ; they shall be your bond-men forever." It 
seems difficult to deny that this feature of slavery 
existed among the Jews until the final destruction 
of their city. The language of the passage is that 
of injunction, but it implies nothing more than 
that the Hebrews were permitted to procure 
slaves of the surrounding nations, and hold them 
in perpetual bondage. No considerate man sup- 
poses that they were required to do this, and that 
the Hebrew who neglected to do it was living in 
sin. We have two remarks to submit in relation 
to this general permission. The first is, that the 
kind of servitude to which foreign slaves were 
subjected was in all respects the same with the 
servitude of the Hebrews themselves, except that 
it was perpetual. They were protected by the 
laws; were circumcised, and introduced to all the 
blessings and promises of (fod's peculiar jx'ople. 
But there is another remark. The condition of 
20* 



23i SLAVERY. 



1 



the Hebrews was a peculiar condition. The na- 
tions with which they were surrounded, were 
nations whom for their total apostacy from the 
worship of the true God. their degraded idolatry, 
their unnatural cruelty and pollution, the Hebrews 
were required to exterminate. There was one 
condition on which they were relieved from the 
execution of this decree. It was that the Canaan- 
ites submitted to their invaders, renounced their 
idolatry, and became Hebrews, Their conquerors 
were the ministers of the divine justice, command- 
ed to execute this sentence, and to relax its rigour 
BO far as their enemies submitted to their go- 
vernment and their reUgion. The right to des- 
troy carried with it the right to enslave, while 
the slaves purchased their lives by the voluntary 
surrender of their hberty. 

I cannot think that I have set the slavery of the 
Hebrews in too fair colours. I have not designed 
to do so. 3Iost certainly, it was a very different 
thing from what it was m the surrounding nations. 
Look at the contrast, and see the influence of the 
Bible upon slavery, even at that early age of the 
world. Slavery there was among the Hebrews, 
but few of its evils. The entire dispensation of 
the Jews made at once a bold and decided inva- 
sion upon its abuses and eradicated them. And 
yet it is a fact equally clear, that it left the relation 
between master and servant untouched, and in- 
stead of denouncing slavery as a crime, is offended 
only with its abuses. 



SLAVERY. 235 

Such was the meHoration which the Bible intro- 
duced in regard to this large class of our fellow- 
beings, for whom it so kindly and wisely legislated 
under the old dispensation and down to the coming 
of Christ. And nothing is more obvious than that, 
while it exerted the happiest influence upon this 
relation of social life, it did not overturn and de- 
stroy it. The same essential principles of reform, 
and no others, we find every where developed in 
the New Testament. Employed exclusively in 
propagating the doctrines of their Divine Master, 
his apostles no where opened a crusade upon the 
despotism of the government under which they 
lived, or upon the institutions sanctioned by its 
laws. Melioration in civil affairs they left to be 
gradually brought about by the silent operation of 
those divine principles which purify the heart; 
which have in their progress banished such an 
amount of sin, tyranny, and slavery from the world 5 
and which are destined, in the same heaven-like 
way, to complete their work. In all the mutual 
intercourse of men, the great maxim which they 
enforce is one and unchanging : " Therefore all 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
unto you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the 
law and the prophets." This spirit runs through 
the whole of the New Testament, and addresses 
itself ccjually to the master and the slave. One 
cannot but observe with admiration, the high-born 
wis(h>m, i\u) meekness and gcnthuK^ss with which 
the apostles conducted this discussion. The re- 



236 SLAVERY. 

ligion they taught is a rehgion of love. It breathes 
peace on earth and good will to men. What in- 
congruity with such a spirit to have excommuni- 
cated every slaveliolder ! or to have made immedi- 
ate emancipation the condition of church member- 
ship ! What incongruity with such a spirit to have 
excited revolt among the Christian slaves, or to 
have disseminated notions which must have revo- 
lutioLized the principles of social order, and broke 
dov.n all the distinctions of rank and condition '? 
They did nothing of all this. They were taught 
from above, and their wisdom and meekness gave 
efficacy to their ministrations. They had access 
to the slave population of the Roman empu-e; they 
penetrated " Caesar's household ;" they urged the 
cause of their blaster in the palaces of kings, and 
carried the hearts of masters and slaves by gaining 
their impajtial attention, and expressing the gen 
tleness of Christ. 

I have been not a httle affected with their in 
structions to both these classes of men. 3Iark 
their delicacy, and at the same time their tender- 
ness and sympathy when they address the poor 
slave — just weak enough to begin to think he is an 
emperor, because by the grace of God he has be- 
come a Christian. " Art thou called being a ser- 
vant ? Care not for it. But if thou mayest be 
free, use it rather. For he that is called in the 
Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman. Let 
every man abide in the same calling wherein he is 
called !^' How wise ! how kind ! How different 






SLAVERY. 237 

from some modern reformers ! I seem to see the 
great apostle laying his paternal hand upon the 
head of the poor slave, and hear him say, Care not 
for your slavery. You are the Lord's freeman. 
Stay where you are. You shall have a throne here- 
after. And that your master may share it with 
you, let him see your spirit of love and meekness. 
" Be obedient to your masters, according to the 
flesh, with good will doing service as unto the 
Lord, and not unto men. Account your masters 
worthy of all honour that the name of God be not 
blasphemed !" If you have Christian masters, de- 
mean not yourselves superciliously on this account, 
but rather more affectionately and dutifully ; " de- 
spise them not because they are brethren, but ra- 
ther do them service because they are faithful and 
beloved !" Nor is it to the slave only that they ad- 
dress their counsels. While they neither excom- 
municate, nor even rebuke the master, simply be- 
cause he is a master, they do not withhold their 
rebuke of all his oppression and injustice — nay they 
thunder forth their anathemas against the degra- 
dation, the ignorance, the misery, the wickedness, 
and every violation of the personal and domestic 
rights to which he subjects his slaves, and solemnly 
remind him of the fearfulness of that day when 
God shall call him to account. They admonish him 
not to be unmindful of the obligations to his slaves 
on his part. Tlicy say to him, '^ Masters, give unto 
your slave's that which \sji4st and equal. Do the 
same things unto them, forbearing threatening \ 



238 SLAVERY. 

knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither 
is there any respect of persons with him P They 
say to him. You are responsible, as well as your 
slaves ; and as you would enjoy the favour of your 
Judge, honour his religion, and find mercy at that 
day, be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is 
merciful. Your slaves are not things^ but per- 
sons : they are not brutes, but men j they are not 
your creatures, but God's ^ they are not ijour pro- 
perty, but his who *• made of one blood all nations 
ofmenforto dwell on the face of the earth, if 
haply they might feel after him and find him." 

Thus do the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testament treat the subject of slavery. They 
sanction 7io other slavery than this. The exclu- 
sive title of man over a fellow worm, who belongs 
not to him, but to God : the assertion of any hu- 
man will as supreme over a fellow-creature, when 
there is no supreme will in heaven or on earth, but 
the divine will ; the lordincr it over the conscience 
of the slave, when God alone is Lord of the con- 
science : this they rebuke and indignantly con- 
demn. "Whatever servitude denies the slave the 
rights of his moral nature, annihilates his capacity 
of improvement, crushes intellect that would other- 
wise brighten and expand, subdues afiections that 
would otherwise be elevated to the spirit of hea- 
ven, shuts out the light of truth, and binds body 
and soul in the chains of ignorance and death 5 
they denounce as one of the things which the 
Lord hateth. But a slavery that is dissevered 



SLAVERY. 239 

from all these evils, and dissociated from the abuses 
to which it is so exposed from the corrupt propen- 
sities and selfish passions of men, it no where, to 
my knowledge, forbids. Such a slavery, for ex- 
ample, as Onesimus sustained to Philemon, a state 
of Christian servitude, a state in which the master 
and the slave were required to conduct themselves 
as brethren and heirs of the common faith and 
salvation, Paul certainly did not forbid^ when he 
restored this fugitive slave to his master. So far 
from justifying him for absconding, he required 
him to go back, at the same time furnishing him 
with a letter of introduction to his master, entreat- 
ing him to overlook his fault, and regard hiin as a 
penitent and faithful servant, and " brother be- 
loved." 

I hold myself ready to revise these view\s, when- 
ever I see evidence from the Bible that they are 
not true. Nothing is more plain to my mind, than 
that the word of God recognizes the relation be- 
tween master and slave as one of the established 
institutions of the age 5 and that while it addresses 
slaves as Christian men, and Christian men as 
slaveholders, it so modifies the whole system of 
slavery, as to give a death blow to all its abuses, 
and breathes such a spirit, tliat in the same pro- 
portion in which its |)rinciples and spirit are im- 
bibed, the yoke of bondage will melt away, all its 
abuses cease, and evc^ry form of human oppr(^ssion 
will l)(^ unknown. The llible is no <)git;;tor. It 
gradually meliorates whnt it canjiot sudticMily re- 



^46 



SLAVERY. 



1 



move. Instead of carrying fire and sword through- 
out the world without the least prospect of advan- 
tage, it aims at making men holy and fitting them 
for heaven. It changes human governments only as 
it changes the human character 5 and thus produces 
all those alterations which commend themselves to 
a mind enlightened by the truth and spirit of God. 
It aims at transforming the world 5 but it is by 
transforming the dispositions and hearts of men, 
and diftusino^ throuorhout all the social institutions, 
the supreme love of God, and the impartial love 
of man. 

Let us now take a brief view of the practical 
efifect of these general principles, as they have 
actually been applied by several Christian States. 
European civilization may be said to have com- 
menced from the fall of the Roman empire. To 
say nothing of antecedent periods, from this time, 
the Bible, though often in the hands of a corrupted 
hierarchy, has been exerting a powerful influence 
on all the social institutions. Barbarism gradually 
subsided into feudalism, and feudalism gave way to 
the various modifications of civil liberty. Slavery 
was among the last of the evils, so imbedded in 
the constitution of human society, to which the 
Bible extended its influence. " Mr. Barnngton, 
who has given a very strong picture of the degra- 
dation and oppression of the tenants under the 
English tenure of pure villenage, is of opinion that 
feudal servitude existed in England so late as the 



SLAVERY. 241 

reign of Elizabeth."* But the personal servitude 
which grew out of the abuses of the feudal system, 
was a much milder form of slavery than that which 
existed among the ancients. " No person in Eng- 
land was a villain in the eye of the law, except in 
relation to his master. To all other persons he 
was a freeman, and as against them he had rights 
of property 5 and his master for excessive injuries 
committed upon the vassal was answerable at the 
kings suit."t The importation of negro slaves into 
the Spanish colonies had commenced as early as 
1501 ; and in 1517, the emperor Charles V. granted 
a patent to certain persons to supply the Spanish 
islands with slaves from Africa. But this enter- 
prise was opposed with great spirit and vigour by 
some of the Christians of Spain, who had great 
influence in mitigating slavery in the colonies. 
The first Englishman who introduced the practise 
of buying, or kidnapping negroes in Africa, and 
transporting and selhng them for slaves in the 
West Indies, was Sir John Hawkins, an English 
admiral born at Plymouth, and who signalized 
himself under Elizabeth, especially against the in- 
vincible armada. It is matter for lamentation 
that having signalized himself in so good a cause, 
he should have become signal in a cause which 
loads his name with everlasting reproach. Tiiis 
was in the year 1562. From that time to the 



*Kcnt*s Commcntnrlos, Vol. II. f Il>icK 

21 



242 SLAVERY. 

year 1808, the British West Indies became the 
great receptacle of these unhappy beings. " In 
1620, a Dutch vessel carried a cargo of slaves 
from Africa to Virginia 5 and this was the sad 
epoch of the introduction of African slaves into 
the English colonies on this continent. The 
Dutch records of New Netherlands allude to the 
existence of slaves in their settlements on the 
Hudson, as early as 1626 5 and slavery is men- 
tioned in the Massachusetts laws, between 1630 
and 1641."* 

Thus, for well nigh three successive centuries, 
the negro race remained almost without an advo- 
cate — crushed, broken, and deserted, and the ob- 
jects of a cupidity which it would seem nothing 
could satiate. England, deeply stained with the 
guilt of this foul traffic, at length stands foremost 
for the relief and elevation of the African race, 
unless we except the government and people of 
Massachusetts, who, in 1645-'46, so boldly pro- 
tested against the introduction of African slaves 
into the colony as a heinous crime.f At the com- 
mencement of that distinguished era which was 
introduced about half a century ago, when the 
missionary spirit began to agitate the Christian 
world; when the judgments of heaven began to 



\ 



* Kent's Commentaries, 

t Winthrop's and Bancroft's Histories, as referred to by Chan- 
cellor Kent 



SLAVERY. 243 

descend on the nations which had "given their 
power and strength to the beast 5" when the cause 
of evangehcal truth was revived, and the spirit of 
God began to descend in that series of revivals of 
rehgion which has not ceased to the present hour ^ 
a movement was begun in Britain, by which Chris- 
tianity and civihzation were conveyed to long-ne- 
glected and abused Africa. Clarkson, Sharpe, 
Wilberforce, Thornton and Gregorie, became the 
undaunted and unwearied advocates for the aboli- 
tion of the slave trade throughout the civilized 
world, and the inquiry was every where agitated, 
whether it were not practicable to wipe away this 
deep stain from Christian lands. About the same 
time, the establishment of the colony of Sierra- 
Leone, and the fearful revolution in St. Domingo, 
gave additional impulse to the enterprise, and 
awakened the hope that the day of Africa's deli- 
verance was near. " God Almighty has set before 
me," said Wilberforce, "two great objects, the 
8Uj)pres8ion of the slave trade, and the reformation 
of manners." After some few unsuccessful strujr- 
gles, the celebrated Mr. Pitt was enlisted in tbis 
cause, and Mr. Fox concluded the last speech he 
ev(»r made in parliament with the immortal resolu- 
tion for the abolition of the slave trade.* In the 
mean time, such men as Sir Samuel Romily and 
Sir James Mcintosh, aided by venerable prelates, 



*Sce Croly's Life of George IV. 



244 SLAVERY. 

threw the vigour of their minds and the ardour 
of their hearts into the benevolent struggle, and 
Edmund Burke had exclaimed, '^This is not a 
traffic in the labour of man, but in the man him- 
self!" In March, 1807, the bill for abolition was 
passed. After the general peace in Europe, in 
1814, the subject was again brought before parlia- 
ment for the purpose of securing the co-operation 
of the other Christian powers in the suppression 
of this nefarious traffic. In 1823, the house of 
commons unanimously adopted a series of resolu- 
tion with the ultimate view of emancipating all 
slaves within the British dominions. The parha- 
ment of Great Britain had peculiar facilities for 
doing this. It had unlimited power. The slaves 
were not a constituent part of their own popula- 
tion, but in remote and feeble islands, having no 
voice in the government at home, and whom a few 
ships of the line could awe into obedience. In 
1826, the same resolutions were adopted unani- 
mously by the house of lords. A little before this, 
Mr. Buxton and Mr. Canning had introduced the 
resolutions for the more lenient treatment of the 
slaves, especially as regards religious instruction 
and their social condition. And, in 1833, a more 
decisive course of action was adopted 5 and the 
memorable bill passed, which, at an expense of 
£ 20,000,000, as an equitable consideration to the 
planters for the slaves, resolved on the entire abo- 
lition of slavery throughout the British colonies. 
But, as we have already seen. Great Britain, in 



SLAVERY. 245 

opposition to repeated expostulation and strong 
remonstrance from such men as Franklin, Adams, 
and Hancock, had extended the evils of slavery, 
and diffused this malignant plague throughout 
lands to which the omnipotence of her parliament 
could no longer be extended. Though long since 
abolished in New England, slavery was introduced 
into that country soon after its settlement. But it 
was in a form modified and mitigated by the spirit 
and principles of the Bible. While the cupidity 
of New England had done much to replenish the 
slave market of the south, the institutions of the 
Mosaic law were professedly the model of her own 
slavery. It was early enacted in the Massachu 
sets colony, that " all slaves shall have the liberties 
and Christian usage which the law of God esta- 
blished in Israel concerning such persons, doth 
morally require." The law in the state of Con- 
necticut is thus expressed by Judge Reeve, in his 
law of baron and femme. ^' Slavery here was very 
far from being of the absolute and rigid kind. 
The master had no control over the life of his 
slave. If he killed him, he was liable to the same 
punishment as if he killed a freeman. He was as 
liable to be sued by the slave in an action for beat- 
ing, or wounding, or for inunoderate chastisement, 
as he would be if he had thus tr(\ited an appren- 
tice. A slave was ca[)able of holding pro})erty in 
character of a devisee, or legatee. If the master 
should take away such property, his slave w<uild 
be entitled to an action against him. Slaves had 
81* 



246 SLAYERT. 

the same right of Ufe and property as apprentices ; 
and the difference between them was this, — an 
apprentice is a servant for a time, and a slave is a 
servant for hfe." 

And where the Bible has begun to exert this in- 
fluence, it does more. It gradually remedies the 
evil, and wears it away. It did in Massachusetts, 
and slavery was abolished by their constitution. It 
did in Connecticut, and statutes were passed in 
1783 and 1797, which have in their gentle and 
gradual operation, totally extinguished slavery in 
that State. It did in New Jersey by an act of the 
legislature in 1784. It did in Pennsylvania, by a 
similar act in 1780. In New York, for a long series 
of years, the Bible appears to have exerted little 
influence in mitigating the condition of the slave. 
''The master and mistress were authorized to 
punish their slaves at discretion, not extending to 
life or limb, and each town was authorized to ap- 
point a common whipper for their slaves, to whom 
a salary was to be allowed. In the year 1740, it 
was observed by the legislature, that all due en- 
couragement ought to be given to the direct im- 
portation of slaves, and all smuggling of slaves con- 
demned, as an eminent discouragement to the fair 
trader !" The criminal code against them was 
fearfully severe. When capitally impeached, they 
were often tried out of the ordinary course of jus- 
tice, and denied the rights and privilege^ of free 
subjects under like accusations. They were con- 
victed on suspicion and on testimonv that would 



SLAVERY. 247 

have been rejected by any court where a white 
man was the accused person. In 1741 on the dis- 
covery of what was called the "negro plot," thirteen 
were adjudged to the stake in our own city.* The 
last execution of this kind was witnessed at Pough- 
keepsie shortly before the commencement of the 
revolutionary war.t But this severity could not 
long be sustained in a Christian land. In process 
of time the penal code against slaves was meliora- 
ted 5 facilities were multiplied for the manumission 
of slaves, and the importation of slaves was at 
length prohibited. Laws were enacted also to 
teach the slaves to read, and a system com- 
menced for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till 
at length, by the act of the 31st. of March, 1817, 
it was declared that every subject of the State, 
from and after the 4th day of July, 1827, shall be 
free. And now tell me, where except in Christian 
lands, can any such history of slavery be found as 
this ? Is it not true that the Bible has silently and 
gradually so meliorated the relation between the 
master and the slave, that in the progress of its 
principles and spirit, it must ultimately either 
abolish this relation, or leave it on a basis of the 
purest benevolence ! 

I am pained to say, that slavery in no very miti- 
gated form still exists in these United States. 



♦ Smith's History of New York, 
•f Kent's Conuncntaries. 



248 SLAVERY. 

There are Christian masters to whom the evils 
and abuses of slavery are unknown. Nor are 
they few. And yet there are abuses in this system 
which it is high time were eradicated. I speak 
not now of those physical evils to which these our 
suffering fellow men are subjected, but of the do- 
mesdc wrongs, the intellectual ignorance, and 
moral debasement to which they are doomed. The 
slave population of the south are by law forbidden 
to read 5 they may not unlock the treasures of 
human and divine knowledge. This cannot be 
right. This must be an offence in the sight of 
God. Christian men at the south, high-minded 
and honourable men should adopt early measures 
to remove this evil. They scarcely know how 
such a policy appears to impartial minds of all 
lands. The condition of slaves in the southern 
States is described by Chancellor Kent, to be 
" more analagous to that of the slaves of the an- 
cients, than to that of the villeins of feudal times, 
both in respect to the degradation of the slaves, 
and the full dominion and power of the master. 
The statute regulations with regard to slaves, follow 
the principles of the civil law, and are extremely 
severe, but the master has no power over life, or 
limb ; and the severe letter of their laws is soft- 
ened and corrected by the humanity of the age, 
and the spirit of Christianity." This is a suf- 
ficiently melancholy picture from such a pen. 
We lament it 5 we deeply lament it before God 
and the world. Nor is this the worst. It is esti- 



SLAVERY. 249 

mated in a recent and important work on the slave 
trade, by Mr. Buxton, of the Enghsh parhament, 
that not less than one thousand negroes are, even 
at this late period of the world, every day torn 
from their homes in Africa, by the horrible cupi- 
dity of their fellow men. 

And how shall the evil be remedied ? Just as 
the Bible, and all sound experience tell us it has 
been remedied ; — through the influence of the gos- 
pel, by the power of Christian truth, by the meek- 
ness and gentleness of Christian men. Crossness, 
calumny, obstinacy, and fury are not the remedy. 
Angry passions and bitter invective are not the re 
medy. Strife and ill wiIl,accrimonious discussions 
and sanguinary war are not the remedy. These 
will throw a thousand obstacles in your path, and 
involve you in endless difl[iculties, and create need 
less enemies and opposition. Who does not see 
that it has done so already ? and that in Virginia, 
in Kentucky, in Maryland, and in the District of 
Columbia, a very sensible and inauspicious change 
has taken place within a very few years in the sen- 
timi'nts of the public in relation to slavery ? The 
late Dr. Griffin, one of the most devoted friends of 
the coloured race in this land, said to me a few 
months before his death, " I do not see that the 
efforts in favour of iimnediatc emancipation, have 
effected any thing but to rivet the chains of tho 
poor slave." Is not this a lamentable fact ? Deeply 
as this evil was laid in the foundations of our coun- 
try, it has already disappeared in many portions of 



250 SLAVERY. 

it, driven awav by the spirit of the gospel and of 
liberty ; and if we are to expect its entire banish- 
ment, we must look for it in the operation of the 

same gentle, yet not less effectual causes which 
have hitherto lightened the sorrows of the captive, 
and led the north to ivee herseh* from this stain. 
We would r-; ' rie evil by the light of truth, 
by the ardour . by the soft mercies that dis- 

til from the olive branch of peace, by the balm of 
Gilead. The recklessness of dissention, the disu- 
nion of our body politic, and its consequent horrors 
^^iil b^ disastrous both to the master and the slave, 
De>perate iiaste and inconsiderate heedlessness 
will but defeat their object. And where do we 
f: - - - I encouragement to such a 

C- :. ^„ ... ..rs. but not in the judgment ^ 

in the unthinking, and I fear at times designing 
fanaticism of a few modern reformers, but not in 
pa^t experi*^nce : not in calm, foreseeing benevo- 
lence : a. we find it not in the word of 
God. Beiievf nie. my young triends. there is'^a 
more excellent way." You may shut out the light 
T'f tr^ith trom the master and the slave: you may 
give birth to unsleeping jealousies and bitter ani- 
mosity which a century cannot assuage: you may 
divide the land which is otherwise destined to be 
the glory of the church and the world; and voa 
will have only bound faster the chains which would 
have relaxed and fallen off. and have paralyzed the 
hands of Ethiopia just as she was " stretching them 
out unto God." Hesitate then, ere you throw your- 



SLAVERY. 251 

selves into a stream, which, as passion and bitter 
animosity shall swell its current, will launch you on 
an ocean of dissension and civil strife. Pause, ere 
you put your hands to a mighty engine, which, 
when in motion, you will have no power to guide 
or restrain — perhaps an engine of destruction, the 
effects of which may be felt through coming cen- 
turies, crushing the dearest interests of yourselves 
and your posterity. And while you pause, will you 
not listen to the dictates of an unbiassed judgment ; 
to the best and most enlightened feelings of your 
hearts ; will you not consult that Book which, 
while it refrains from rudely interfering with the 
existing institutions of society, is destined, by the 
mild diffusion of its light and influence, to banish the 
evils of slavery from the world. 



LECTURE IX. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE OX THE EXTENT 
AND CERTAINTY OF MORAL SCIENCE. 



That which gives value and excellency to the 
religion of the Bible is its truth — its undeniable, 
undoubted truth. Our behef of it does not make 
it true, nor does our unbeUef of it make it false. 
The great Author of our nature has so constituted 
the mind, that where its moral bias is not corrupt- 
ed and perverted, there is nothing it more delights 
in than truth. Even in the meaner and less useful 
sciences, it has no such luxury as in the pursuit of 
truth. It is narrated of Archimedes, the celebra- 
ted mathematician of Syracuse, that during the 
war which raged between Hiero and the Romans, 
he was not diverted from his contemplations even 
by the sacking of his native city, but was killed by 
a common soldier, while he was in the very act of 
meditating a mathematical theorem. I doubt not 



MORAL SCIENCE. 253 

I 

that you have often sympathized with the solicitude 
of this philosopher, and in some degree at least, 
participated in his ecstacy, in that intense pleasure 
which you have, almost insensihly as it were, de- 
rived from the pursuit and acquisition of truth. 
The thirsty clod, or drooping flower, is not more 
really refreshed, when it drinks the long-wished-for 
rain, than the eager and panting mind is refreshed 
and rejoices as she drinks her fill at some pure 
fountain of knowledge. It were grateful to know^ 
did the acquisition only exalt and expand the 
mind 5 but it is still more grateful when we recol- 
lect, that truth opens so many other sources of 
enjoyment — enjoyment that is valuable, because it 
is pure and enduring, that never palls on the intel- 
lectual appetite, and which, the oilener it is re- 
peated, is the more sure to be repeated without 
satiety. 

It is not every man who has the opportunity of 
augmenting these sources of enjoyment. Nature 
perhaps has denied him the talents, or the provi- 
dence of God has withheld from him the means 
of extensive intellectual acquisition. And there- 
fore his mind is narrow, liis faculties are degraded, 
his taste for [)leasure is uncultivated and coarse, 
and he is too apt to be dependant upon the grati- 
fications of sense. Especially luive these remarks 
force, as they relate to the various branches of mo- 
ral science. Men may be ignorant in very many 
departments of human knowlc^dgc with (toinparative 
hut llH're arc subjects of intelhMtual re- 



254 MORAL SCIENCE. 

gearch in which every man, without distinction of 
rank and condition, has a deep and everlasting in- 
terest. A being who is the creature of account, 
and destined to immortality, whatever else he may l{ 
forego, may not be ignorant of moral and religious 
truth. 

We have seen in the progress of these lectures, 
that the world is not a little indebted to the Bible 
for its advancement in various departments of hu- 
man knowledge. But we should have very inad- 
equate impressions of what we owe to this sacred 
volume, did we limit them by the information it 
communicates in the departments o^ human know- 
ledge merely. The knowledge whiclMmost deeply 
interests us is that which relates to the destinies 
of man as the creature of God and the heir of 
immortality. Other knowledge has principal re- 
ference to the present world, and terminates with 
the present life 5 this refers to the soul, and is last- 
ing as eternity. 

We are scarcely aware how little the world 
knows, or ever has known of religious truth^ for 
which it is not altogether indebted to this sacred 
Book. We cannot indeed form any distinct and 
just conception of the intellectual condition of our 
race, had the light of a supernatural revelation 
never shone upon our doubt and darkness. The 
present actual condition of those portions of the 
human family who are destitute of the Scriptures, 
degraded and dark as they are, does not furnish a 
faithful developement of the still deeper and more 



MORAL SCIENCE. 255 

profound darkness which would have rested on them, 
had the Hght of heavenly truth, instead of having been 
once enjoyed, end subsequently extinguished, never 
shone upon them. The design of this lecture there- 
fore, is to mark as clearly as we can in the compass 
of a single exercise, tJie influence of the Bible upon 
the researches and certainty of moral science. 

It has been customary with a certain class of 
men to represent in glowing colours the powers 
of human reason; to eulogize and almost deify the 
intellectual faculties of man, and to give them so 
high a place as to dispense with the light of a su- 
pernatural revelation. Not a little has been said, 
and much better than we can say it, to dispel this 
illusion. Moral and religious truth is a field which 
the lights of reason have never explored, and un- 
aided, can never explore. Under the direction of 
perfectly sanctified affections, she might indeed 
have been a safe and sure guide, so far as her 
limited powers could extend. Unfallen, she might 
discover the expressive indications of her Maker's 
will and glory in his works and providence, and 
every where read his truth, '^ clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are made." But the 
" gold has become dim, and the most fine gold can 
be changed." Her once eagle eye is darkened and 
benighted. This once lofty intelligence is fallen, 
its vision dimmed, and its faculties weakencMl and 
perv(;rted. I do not know a more fruitful source 
of error than confidence in the undirected, and 
therefore misdirectinl, powers of the human mind 



256 MORAL SCIENCE. 

in its inquiries after religious truth. It is the 
Ilqiatov xptvdog^ the radical error of all false re- 
ligions, and of every deviation from the true. It 
would seem that rationalists have forgotten, or are 
unwilling to acknowledge the extent of man's apos- 
tacy. They have exalted the powers of human 
reason to an elevation known only to unfailen hu- 
manity, and have paid a reverence to its dictates 
which belongs only to the infinite and unerring In- 
telligence. I do not hesitate to say, that the man 
who does not construct his theory of moral science 
upon the broad basis of human apostacy, and who 
is not deeply sensible that, at every step of his pro 
gress, he has to contend not only with a depraved 
heart and an erring conscience, but also with an 
understanding that is darkened and defiled, is sure 
to construct one that is visionary and wild. It is 
lamentable, that the age of extravagant encomium 
upon the intellectual powers of man has not 
ceased. Who, in a Christian audience, is not 
weary of these misplaced and ill-timed commenda- 
tions? What have the boasted powers of reason, 
unaided and unillumined by light from heaven, ever 
achieved ? Where are their splendid victories 
over the empire of darkness ? What are the con- 
clusions to which they have arrived, the results 
which they have adopted and defend ? After fol- 
lowing them through all the intricacies and dark- 
ness of their labyrinths, into W'hat world of light do 
they conduct us ? 

We cannot answer these inquiries without 



MORAL SCIENCE. 257 

taking a passing glance at some of the leading 
religious principles of pagan philosophers and more 
modern deists, and showing their utter insufficien- 
cy to answer the great ends of religion. Of the 
former we may truly say, that it is painful and 
even disgusting to contemplate the ignorance of 
the most celebrated of their number on almost all 
moral and religious subjects. Their endless dif- 
ferences and inconsistencies upon topics which 
they conceived to be of the highest importance, 
were such that one would think it impossible for 
themselves even to have any confidence in their 
ow^n speculations. Such too was the immorality 
of their doctrines, that wherever they were believ- 
ed they could not fail to exert a pernicious in- 
fluence upon the opinions and practices of men. 
Some believed in the existence of a God 5 others 
did not. Some were unitarians 5 others were 
polytheists. Every country had its deities which 
differed from all others : — some in the heavens — 
some in the air — some in the ocean — some in the 
infernal regions — while some were deified heroes 
and men. Every thing about their religion was 
dark, confused, and imperfect. As we have al- 
ready seen, they were the grossest idolaters, and 
their religious rites were distinguished by all that 
is impure and cruel. They were utterly ignorant 
of any method of salvation, as well as any ellectnal 
means for the attainment of holiness. They had 
no definite notions of tiu^ end for which man was 
created, or of that in which his highest hap|)iiies3 



258 MORAL SCIENCE. 

consists. Of the resurection of the body, they 
knew nothing, and were in a state of painful sus- 
pense concerning the immortality of the soul. 
They spoke of Elysium and Tartarus, but these 
were poetical fancies rather than any just concep- 
tion of the doctrine of rewards and punishments. 
The insufficiency of their religion is every where 
proved from its defective discoveries of the being 
and character of the only true God ; from the ab- 
surdities of their worship ^ from their ignorance of 
the true sources of human enjoyment ^ from their 
imperfect rules of duty, and ineffectual motives to 
obedience ; from their utter darkness on the great 
subject of pardon for the guilty, and the utter 
powerlessness of their systems to arrest and sub- 
due the power of moral corruption.* 

And what more has reason done for the pagans 
of modern, than for those of ancient times ? Pass 
through heathen lands ; visit the savage tribes of 
Africa and our own continent; travel over Hin- 
dostan and China 5 and you will see how little un- 
aided reason can effect in discovering a system of 
religious truth. Sorcery, divination and magic 5 
the transmigration of souls into animals and vege- 
tables after death ^ endless superstitions and gross 



* See these positions illustrated at length in Halyhurton's 
Enquiry. The ablest dissertation I have met with on this gene- 
ral topic is from the pen of the late Dr. John M. Mason, entitled 
"Hints on the insufficiency of the light of nature." Vol. III. 
p. 405. 



MORAL SCIENCE. 259 

darkness are the acknowledged characteristics of 
their rehgion. There is indeed an imposing n^y- 
thology ; there is the grandeur of temples, the 
decoration of altars and priests, and idols ; there 
is the pomp of their ritual, and the gaity of their 
festivals ; while the awful tragedy is distinguished 
by nothing more certainly than the wild and wan- 
ton dance ; the sanguinary procession, and the 
bones of men offered to their idol deities bleaching 
under the arid sky. 

If you ascend somewhat higher than these deg- 
radations of paganism, and enquire what reason 
has achieved among deistical philosophers, what 
do you find but systems of materialism and irre- 
sponsibility — a world uncaused and ungoverned — 
a deity who is neither wise, nor good — conceptions 
that are obscure and unsatisfying — and systems of 
dark uncertainty and unhinging scepticism that 
agitate, without convincing the mind ? Deism, it 
is to be hoped, has seen its best days. From the 
early part of tlie seventeenth century, when a few 
men in France and Italy began to form them- 
selves into a society for the purpose of propagating 
the doctrines of pure Theism in opposition to 
Christianity, down to tlie latter part of the eigh- 
teenth century, when so many distinguished minds 
both on the continent of Europe and in Croat 
Britain, rejected the gospel und(»r a ]>retence of 
veneration for tlui One true dJod, human rc^ison 
made its best, and probably its last efforts in favour 
of natural religion. And yet nothing more clearly 



2G0 MORAL SCIEXCE. 

distinguishes this system than that it professes lObe 
no si'stetn. It acknowledges the existence of God ; 
professes to follow the hght and law of nature, and 
rejects all divine revelation. With this standard 

it seemed for a while to be marching through the 
world, and because it quieted the minds of men in 
sin. multiplied its converts without inquiry and 
without conviction. But it was destined to over- 
throw itself. It was never any thing better than 
a refined sort of paganism. ^Vor had it indeed 
half the conscience, or half the stability of pagan- 
ism itself At first it was pure Theism, or natural 
rehgion ; then it became bold infidelity 5 then 
materialism j then scepticism ; then it denied a 
prondence, and then a God. Reason became its 
deity: there was no God but Reason. And now, 
for the first time elevated to the throne of the uni- 
verse, reason began to be alarmed for her o\mi 
safety, and resolved that there icas a God. And 
then she began to tread her way back to the Bible. 
There, and there only does she discover the God 
whom the understanding delights in, and at whose 
authority conscience bows. It is a remark wor- 
thy of being remembered, that "however deists 
may deride and scoff' at the Bible, it is a fact capa- 
ble of the clearest proof, that had it not been for 
the Scriptures, there would not at this time be 
such a thing as pure Theism upon earth. There 
is not now in the world an individual who believes 
in one mfinitely perfect God. whose knowledge of 



MORAL SCIENCE. 261 

this truth may not be traced directly, or indirectly 
to the Bible.* 

There is another fact which is enough to wean 
our confidence from the more arrogant claims of 
human reason ; I mean its utter failure in the great 
department of intellectual philosophy. Employing, 
as this department has done, some of the most 
erudite and powerful minds, its whole history has 
furnished melancholy indications of the bhndness 
and uncertainty of that dependance which men 
have placed in their own intellectual powers. 
Though giant minds have grappled with the theme 
with all their freshness and vigour, what has been 
more fluctuating than the principles of this science 
from the days of the schoolmen down to the time 
of Reed, Stuart and Brown ? Who now confides 
in the visionary system of Malbranche ; in the no- 
tions of Locke, with respect to the origin of our 
ideas 5 or in the idealism of Berkley and Collier ? 
WIio believes in the annihilation both of the world 
of matter and of mind, as advocated by Hume; 
in the monads of Leibnitz; in the vibrations and 
associations of Hartley ; in the negations of Kant ; 
or in the transcdentalism of Coleridge and Cousin ? 
And yet, which of these systems has not, in its 
turn, been extolled as the sublimest ellbrt of human 
genius, and sharing honour with the most im|)or- 
tant improvements in human knowledge ? Aside 



* Evidences of Clirislianity by A. AloxanckT, 1). D, 



262 3I0RAL SCIENCE. 

from the few principles of intellectual philosophy 
which are obviously deducible from the Scrip- 
tures, what evidence have we that a single half 
century will not witness an entire revolution in 
this important science ? How little confidence 
then is to be placed in the vaunted powers of hu- 
man reason ? If she has learned so little in the 
science of mind, how much less will she learn in 
the science of religion ? If her fairest systems of 
mental philosophy are so undetermined and chang- 
ing, what can she accomplish in framing and build- 
ing up a fair and stable system of moral and reli- 
gious truth ! 

It is no difficult matter therefore, to discover the 
appropriate influence of the Bible upon the re 
searches and certainty of moral science. It is 
just the influence that is needed. It is paramount 
to every other ; is extensive as the wants of the 
soul, and the sphere of religious truth ; is perfect 
and can receive no accessions. It illumines where 
men are ignorant, and decides and establishes 
where reason hesitates and our minds are in doubt 
and uncertainty. Let us contemplate it a single 
moment in these two aspects. 

In the first place, it extends the sphere of 
moral science. It reveals all truth. It keeps 
back nothing that is best for a fallen creature to 
know. An intelligent child of six years of age, 
educated in the bosom of a Christian family, knows 
more on moral and religious subjects than Socrates 
or Plato. We are scarcely aware of the vast ex- 



MORAL SCIENCE. 263 

tent and compass of religious truth with which the 
the Scriptures are so perfectly familiar. We hsten 
to their instructions so frequently, that the thought 
is not always present to our minds, that they are 
inculcating truths which none but God knows. 
They point us back to the eternity which the 
Creator inhabited before the foundation of the 
world, and forward to the eternity we shall inhabit 
after this world shall have passed away. They 
lead our minds up to Him, who, though he dwells 
in light unapproachable and fills the universe, is 
about our path and about our bed ; on whom all 
beings depend from the archangel to the worm ; 
and who, while he is slow to anger and of great 
kindness, is terrible in majesty. They make us 
acquainted with his vast and perfect purposes, 
comprehending all his works and all the events of 
his providence in this world and other worlds, in 
time and through interminable ages. They direct 
our thoughts to the great law which he has pub- 
lished, and by which he establishes the moral order 
and harmony of the universe. They lead i;s to 
take a view of that world of wonders — man — a 
mystery to himself, and yet more than all the 
works of Cod, the means of eliciting the manifold 
glory of his MakcT. They proclaim to us the 
glad tidings of great joy through the incarnation 
and d(»atli, resnrr(M:lion, interc(\ssion, and niiMlia- 
torial reign and triurjjph of tli(^ Son of (lod. They 
make us acquainted with the character and olil 'cs 
of the Divine Spirit, undcT whose transforming 



264 MORAL SCIE^CE. 

influence the soul is brought out of darkness into 
marvellous light, and though by nature guilty and 
impoverished, is enriched and adorned, and made 
meet to be a partaker of the inheritance with the 
saints in light. They make us familiar with the 
import of momentous and melancholy themes — 
death and the grave 5 with the resurrection both 
of the just and the unjust. They pour a light 
upon our path by which we descry the vast conti- 
nent, the boundless immortality that stretches itself 
away immeasurably beyond our thoughts, and then 
lift the curtain where scenes and prospects rise 
that alternately appal and enchant us — the Son of 
man coming in the clouds of heaven — the throne 
of judgment — the .final sentence — the everlasting 
retribution. How long would human reason have 
been clouded in mist, how long groped in dark- 
ness, had not the light dawned that has made such 
disclosures ? He who knows all things, and sees 
as clearly at midnight as at noon day, not only 
becomes the light of reason, but even condescends 
to reveal to faith what our limited and imperfect 
reason may not in many instances comprehend. 
His intelligence is everlasting; he is the centre 
of thought, the law of all laws, and the last and 
supreme reason of all things. It belongs to him 
to originate and reveal the truths we are to re- 
ceive 5 and even though they may not be compre- 
hended by us, yet are they all clear and plain to 
him. Let the man who thirsts for knowledge, 
who is wearied in his pursuit of truth, and who 



MORAL SCIENCE. 265 

feels dissatisfied with all that reason has ever 
taught him, repair to the Scriptures and see how 
fast he will learn under such a teacher. What 
amazing resources does he possess, when he be- 
comes the possessor of the Bible ! What an 
ocean of knowledge does he carry in the hollow 
of his hand when he grasps that sacred book! 
What uncreated wisdom seems then to be con- 
tained within the limits of his finite inteUigence ! 
When once a mind eager in the pursuit of know- 
ledge begins in earnest to learn from this book of 
God, it continually advances. There are no limits 
to these exhaustless instructions. As the intellec- 
tual powers and faculties expand and brighten by 
thought and prayer, as sinister and unworthy ends 
are lost sight of and superseded by the more 
steady and unalloyed love of the truth, the sphere 
of vision is enlarged — one degree of attainment 
facilitates the acquisition of another — the more is 
known, the greater will be the capacity of know- 
ing, till light poured is upon the hitherto benighted 
mind from every opened page, and it increases in 
the knowledge of God till it beholds him as he is. 
But the Scriptures do not merely extend the 
limits of moral science. In the second place, they 
fix its certainty. They reveal nothing as the ob- 
ject of conjecture, but every thing as of absolute 
knowledge. The truths they disclose are not mat- 
ters of opinion] they are facts, lacts ascertained 
by the God only wise, and tiie reality of wliicli 
depends on his veracity speaking in his word. 
23 



266 3I0RAL SCIEXCE. 

There is no foundation in the nature of things, for 
uncertainty in moral, rather than in natural, or 
mathematical science. Every thing which men 
perceive, and about which they think and reason, 
is either certainly true, or certainly false. Inde- 
pendently of all our views and the views of others, 
distinct from all the notions we derive from cus- 
tom and education, irrespective of all our caprice, 
prejudice, and ignorance, there is such a thing as 
religious truth. There is in the nature of the 
case, no ground for doubt and uncertainty. — 
Though not decided by the same kind of evidence 
by which we resolve an equation, or demonstrate 
a theorem, or determine the nature and causes of 
disease, it is not on that account the less certain 
Where infinite intelligence and integrity bear wit- 
ness, there can be no room for uncertainty. All 
farther inquiry is out of place. One declaration 
of the God of truth is paramount to all the philo- 
sophical theories, and all the opposmg systems of 
faith the w orld ever beheld. It is amusing to hear 
some modern religionists talk about a more ra- 
tional rehgion than the religion of the Bible ! 
What can be more rational than the wisdom of 
God ? " Who hath been his counsellor, and who 
hath instructed him ?'' A sutlering. but godly man, 
was once asked if he could see any reason for 
the dispensation which caused him so much agony. 
" No ;" replied he, '^ but I am as well satisfied as 
if I could see ten thousand. God's will is the 
very perfection of all reason.'' So of the revela- 



MORAL SCIENCE. 267 

tions of his truth. They are the perfection of all 
reason. The reason that is opposed to them is 
not reason, but folly. We need not be surprised, 
therefore, that the Scriptures claim for themselves 
certain knowledge j for how can it be otherwise, 
since they come from God ? Nor should it be any 
matter of surprise to us that those who truly re- 
ceive the Bible should regard it as an unerring 
standard, and be established in its truths. " Lord, 
to whom shall we go, but unto thee ? Thou hast 
the words of eternal life 5 and we believe and are 
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living 
God !" Men who love the Bible, know that it is 
true. They have not merely learned to bow their 
understanding to the decisions of infinite wisdom, 
but they have felt its power. Its truths accord 
with their own experience. They perceive their 
excellence and beauty. They have felt them; 
they have handled them ; they have tasted and 
enjoyed them 5 and those wants of the soul which 
have so long been mocked, and deluded, and unre- 
lieved, have found in them that satisfaction and 
peace which have elsewhere been sought in vain. 
" Do not wonder," says the devout Pascal, " to see 
some unsophisticated people believe without rea- 
soning. God inclines their hearts to believe. They 
judge by the heart, as others do by the under- 
standing. The Holy Scripture is not a science 
of the understanding, but of the heart. It is in- 
telligible only to those who have an honest and 
good heart. Charity is not only the end of the 



S68 MORAL SCIENCE. 

Holy Scriptures, but the entrance to them.*^ 3Ien 
>vho are born of God, are begotten through the 
truths of the Bible ] they are, as it were, born into 
them, and they form the ahment of their spiritual 
being. They have had access to the tree once 
guarded by flaming cherubims ; they have plucked 
its fruit, have breathed its fragrance and perfume, 
and know indeed that it is the tree of life. 

'Sov is it a consideration of little moment, that 
the Scriptures fix the certainty of religious truth. 
Few principles are of higher importance than that 
truth, so far as it is attained, can be known with 
certainty. It is one thing to be on the whole per- 
suaded, and another to be assured. It is one thing 
to view a proposition undulating between the dif- 
ferent gradations of probability, and established 
only by the preponderance of probabihties ; and 
another to consider truth beyond the influence of a 
doubt. If, after patient investigation, there were few 
subjects but may be unsettled by a corrupt phi- 
losophy : if. after a laborious, impartial, and pray- 
erful study of the Scriptures, it were impossible to 
arrive at any other conclusion than conjecture, 
we might well feel ourselves involved in '• an hor- 
ror of great darkness.^ I cannot easily conceive 
of a more painful state of mind. Perhaps, indeed, 
there is no feeling in the human bosom so distress- 
ing as suspense and uncertainty, be the subject 
what it may. 3Ian needs firm ground whereon to 
place his feet, and not the marsh or quicksand, 
that trembles beneath him. He has a singular 



MORAL SCIENCE. 269 

power to brace his courage to a level with his con- 
dition, and to endure with fortitude those evils 
which, before their arrival, seemed almost insup- 
portable. But a state of hesitation between hopes 
and fears is, if possible, more tormenting than the 
fulfillment of his worst apprehensions. The haunt- 
ing fear, the agony of suspense, prostrate his ener- 
gy ; and to escape these, he often leaps to grapple 
with the dread realities. Where then can be im- 
agined a more dreadful state of mind than one of 
uncertainty as to the most important and vital 
moral subjects ? Is there such a being as God ? 
Is there a future state of immortal existence ? Is 
there pardon for the guilty ? At what rate shall 
we estimate the misery of the mind that ponders 
upon these momentous questions with doubt and 
uncertainty ? To hang over the deep current into 
which generations have sunk, while the eye finds 
nothing but darkness, nor even a ripple which 
shows the spot w here they disappeared 5 to lean 
over the abyss to see whether perhaps it might 
discover some faint outline of the world beneath ; 
whether some gloomy echo, or some response of 
joy, some sound of mourning, or some song of 
praise, shall tell the dreadful mystery; what indis- 
cribablc anxiety is this ! But not thus is it with 
men who have the Bible. From these unerring 
pages speaks a voice that is echoed back from 
every bosom of the living, every tomb and monu- 
ment of the (lead. If every thing wore* conjecture 
elsewhere, here every thing is certainty. Wo 
23* 



270 MORAL SCIENCE. 



1 



know now the value and the true business cf life. 
And if we are misled and perplexed by the sha- 
dows of uncertainty, it is because we '' love dark- 
ness," and prefer to trace our dubious, hesitating 
course, under the dim torchlight of reason, to be- 
ing led by that book which eternal wisdom has 
revealed to be a " light to our feet and a lamp to 
our path." 

But you will ask me. Has human reason no place 
in the pursuits of moral science ? She has a defi- 
nite and definable place. It is her province to as 
certain that there is a God, and that he is a being 
of infinite power, knowledge and rectitude. It is 
her province to ascertain that he is able to make a 
revelation of his will to men, and with such evi- 
dence of its reality that she can believe and know 
that it comes from him. It is her province to in- 
quire and judge whether the persons who speak in 
his name were truly sent by him, and to become 
assured that what they have spoken and written is 
in sober verity his own word. It is her province 
to look at the difficulties, and weigh well all the ob- 
jections, to the plenary inspiration of the sacred 
volume 5 and to be the more severe in her scrutiny 
because this volume claims to be the only infallible 
rule of faith and practice. Nor does her province 
terminate here. While it belongs not to her to 
erect herself into a tribunal before w hich the truth 
of God must appear to be judged, it at the same 
time belongs to her to inquire and ascertain ichat 
this divinely inspired book contains. This she must 



MORAL SCIENCE. 271 

do diligently, humbly, and with becoming meek- 
ness. Having ascertained that this is the book of 
God, she may task all her powers and all her learning, 
and what is more, all her fairness and candour, to 
ascertain the true sense and import of the sacred 
writers. Her views of religious truth she must 
draw directly from the Scriptures. She is not 
merely to call in the aid of the Bible in confirma- 
tion of her own opinions, but to begin her investi- 
gations with this divine source of knowledge. The 
evidence of the truth she receives is the divine tes- 
timony, and she has nothing to do but ascertain and 
receive it. She may not interfere, nor hesitate, 
where the God of truth has decided. Her business 
is to stand a silent inquirer at the shrine of these 
Oracles, and there hear what God the Lord hath 
spoken. Her object is to get at their philosophy, 
and not her own. She must take leave of her 
lofty indcpendance and dignity, if she would learn 
of Christ. Her philosophical speculations have 
nothing to do in ascertaining the meaning of the 
Scriptures. Nor can we give too great emphasis 
to this thought. Men are very apt, where they 
have any fixed views of the laws which regulate 
mind, to look at God's truth through the medium 
of their own philosophy. If for oxjunplo, God de- 
clares that the human race are sinners from their 
birth, they hesitate at such a statement, bocauso 
according to their received opinions, th(^ infantile 
mind is not capable of sin. If (lod declares that 
the moral renovation of men is elfected by his own 



S72 MORAL SCIENCE. 

mighty power, they call in question this decision, 
because, according to their philosophy, the mind 
is an existence which is incapable of being acted 
upon except by light and motives. Instead of al- 
lowing the Bible to influence their philosophy, they 
allow their philosophy to become the arbitrary in- 
terpreter of the Bible. Instead of submitting their 
judgments to the decisions of the uncreated intel- 
ligence, they require that his intelhgence should be 
subordinate to their own. There are few Chris- 
tian divines that have not to some extent fallen into 
this error. This was eminently the error of Ori 
gin, of Cocceius, of Hutchinson, and of Sweden- 
borg. This is the error of the Pelagians and Ar- 
minians of ancient and modern times. This is the 
error also to some extent of the Calvinistic and Hop- 
kinsian schools. Nay, this is the error of most of 
us, heterodox and orthodox. Strange to say, we 
cannot forbear inweaving the shreds of our own 
philosophy with the wisdom of God. We do it in- 
sensibly. But human reason was never given to 
man for such a purpose. When she has ascer- 
tained the true import of God's revelation, her 
work is done. To attempt more than this, is re- 
bellion against God — nay it is rebellion against her- 
self 5 for reason decides, and decides intuitively, 
that " if we believe the testimony of man, the tes- 
timony of God is greater." It has been well re- 
marked, that " periods in which the pride of phi- 
losophy has been most exalted, have often been 
distinguished for the widest departures from the sim- 



MORAL SCIENCE. 273 

plicity of Scriptural theology." Human reason is 
never so truly in her proper place as when she sits 
a learner at the feet of Christ. How can she soar 
on a loftier wing than when she flies so near the 
Sun as to veil her face and lose her vision in the 
brightness of his rays ? It is not reason that guides 
the soul then, but God. It is a heavenly light — a 
guide from a purer and more intellectual world. 
It is reason, but not her own — a reason that never 
hesitates, never toils, and never becomes weary 5 
a reason that is never prejudiced, partial or be- 
nighted, and that never errs. 

We think it therefore, no small commendation of 
the Bible, that it is the only book that has opened 
to the world the extended field of moral science, and 
so marked and limited the path of human inquiry, 
that if the mind wanders, it can never be said that 
it is for want of light. Few truths come to us 
with such overpowering evidence, as the truths of 
the Bible. The cheerless gloom which broods 
over the understandings of men had never been 
chased away, but for the beams of this supernatu- 
ral revelation. Men may look with an unfriendly 
eye on that system of triitli which reproves and 
condemns them ; while they httle know the loss 
the world would sustain by subverting its founda- 
tion. We have tried paganism ; wo have tried 
Maiiometanism ; we have tried deism and philoso- 
phy •, and " we cannot look upon them even with 
respect." The Scriptures contain the only system 
of truth wiiich is left us. If we give up these, wo 



274 MORAL SCTENCE. 

have no other to which we can repair. We must 
travel back under the faint and trembUng hghts of 
reason and nature, where "darkness covers the 
earth and gross darkness the people." We must 
w^ander amid the regions of fancy and scepticism, 
where there is no argument to convince, and no 
oracle to decide. Every thing we see, and hear, 
and feel, becomes more and more the source of 
solicitude and apprehension, and the farther we 
extend our views, unless guided by this heavenly 
light, w^e behold only a vaster desert — a deeper 
abyss of doubt, darkness and despair. Between re 
flections upon ourselves, and reflections upon God 5 
between just views of his character and our own, 
we see no ground for hope. We are burthened 
with a sense of our sin, misery, and darkness, and 
long in vain for some quiet resting place — some 
covert from the tempest — some shadow of a great 
rock in this weary land — something which has 
"the promise of the life that now is, and that 
which is to come.-' We strive to break our bond- 
age, but every struggle binds us faster in our 
chains, and is only the ineffectual effort of a mind 
separated from God to restore by is own wisdom 
its lost fellowship with its 3Iaker. We counsel 
you therefore to cleave to this unerring word of 
God. And we counsel you not to be satisfied 
with mere intellectual attainments. A mere intel- 
lectual acquaintance wnth the Bible is not godli- 
ness. They know too much of religion, far too 
much for their future comfort, who know more 



MORAL SCIENCE. 275 

than they obey. We claim for the Bible and 
for the truth it inculcates, not only the submis- 
sion, the admiration of your understanding, but 
the submission and admiration of your heart. 
Ah, my young friends, where else can you find a 
moment's repose, when you have once cast away 
your confidence in the instructions of God's word ? 
Cast away this confidence, and there is a chasm 
before you which nothing can fill — an abyss, 
across which your dark, uncomforted minds throw 
their anxious glance, and feel that all their light 
and hopes are extinguished. You would wonder 
why you had been created with such insatiable 
desires after truth, such a thirst for the knowledge 
of God, and yet could find nothing to gratify them. 
Nor would this inquietude ever pass away, until 
you had returned to the Bible. The sundered 
bond would then be made whole ; the separating 
chasm filled; the darkness dissipated ; the agitated, 
despairing mind at peace. 



LECTURE X. 



THE PRE-EMINENCE OF THE BIBLE IN PRODUCING 
HOLINESS AND TRUE RELIGION. 



We have jast turned our attention to the 
influence of the Bible upon the extent and cer- 
tainty of moral science. We advance this eve- 
ning a step beyond speculations like these, how 
ever momentous. We look at man not as the 
creature of intellect and thought merely, but as 
the creature of feeling, of moral sensibility and 
affection : and we look at the Bible not merely as 
exerting an influence upon his intellectual, but 
upon his active and moral powers, and forming 
the only character by which he becomes fitted for 
the presence and enjoyment of God his Maker. 
We here take our leave of those happy influences 
which this wonderful book exerts upon the learn- 
ing and literature of the world ; upon its laws and 
liberties; upon its social institutions and moral 



TRUE RELIGION. 277 

I 

virtues, as well as upon the mere intellectual sphere 
of religious truth. And may I not hope that God 
will incline your hearts to accompany me with the 
same interest with which you have accompanied 
me thus far, though it be in inquiries more spirit- 
ual than those which have hitherto occupied our 
attention ? If the things of time alone absorb our 
thoughts y if the present is that alone in which we 
feel an interest while we are heedless of the fu- 
ture 5 then do we ourselves present melancholy 
proof of that moral infatuation which has not yet 
learned to appreciate the Holy Scriptures. What 
does it profit a man, though " he have all know- 
ledge,'' and yet remain unacquainted with God ? 
" What is he profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul ?' It is the crown* 

AND GLORY OF THE BIBLE THAT IT IS THE ONLY 
MEANS OF HOLINESS AND TRUE RELIGION. 

A moment's reflection upon the nature and des- 
tinies of the human soul, will teach us that moral 
rectitude alone can raise it to its true greatness. 
Were it possible for this great perfection to be de- 
tached from the character of God himself; were 
that divine nature, now so glorious, to be stripped 
of the ''beauties of holinc^ss;" instead of being rc- 
verc^l and loved, \\v would be the object of suspi- 
cion and fear, and could no longer be contemplated 
but with terror and dismay. Tlie high(T a IxMiig 
is in intc^ljcctual |)ow<m', \\w nior(^ dcbasiHl is he, 
and the more were he to be dreaded, were lie des- 
titute of holiness. Holiness constitutes tiu^ b(»auty, 
21 



278 TRUE RELIGIO]??. 

the amiableness, the lovehness of the intelligent 
nature, in whatever being, or whatever world it is 
found. 

Man is not by nature the friend of God. He has no 
inherent moral dignity— no native innocence— no na- 
tural meetness for heaven. Under every form of hu- 
man society, Pagan, Jewish, Mahometan and Chris- 
tian, all are by nature the slaves of sin. There was a 
judicial connexion between the first oflTence of our 
progenitor and the sin and condemnation of his pos- 
terity. " By the offence of one, judgment came upon 
all men to condemnation." It is a search too elevat- 
ed for fallen men to acquaint themselves with God. 
There is no " contact of heart" between them and 
the great Father of spirits. No hours of leisure, 
no retirement of the closet, no silence of the dawn 
or evening witnesses their aspirations after the 
" first Fair and the first Good." " God is not in all 
their thoughts," but is excluded alike from their 
toil, their recreation, and their joys. Nay, even 
in the pensiveness and agony of their sorrows, how 
few are there who say, " Where is God my Maker, 
that giveth songs in the night ^" How immense 
the distance, how deep the chasm between fallen 
man and the Holy One ! The mind, the heart, the 
will, bound together by common bonds, acting and 
reacting upon one another by a thousand unseen 
and uncontrolled influences, all combined in the 
unhallowed, the treasonable revolt ! 

And how can such a being become holy ? By 
what instrumentality is a creature thus apostate to 



TRUE RELIGION. 279 

be restored to the image of his Maker ? By what 
agencies is he to be prepared for that world whose 
blessedness consists in dehverai:ice from sin, and in 
the perfect and everlasting enjoyment of its Great 
Author and glory ? What is the starting point, 
and what the impulse under which so degraded, 
benighted, depraved a being enters upon this new 
moral career ? How shall he begin, in that grow- 
ing transformation of character which in itself 
constitutes one of the chief elements of salvation, 
and one of the principal elements of the heaven 
where God dwells ? Is it by the doctrines of hu- 
man philosophy ? Is it through the influence of 
good government ? Is it by the power of false 
religion ? Or is it only by the power of the 
Bible ? 

The view we have already taken of the pagan 
world shows nothing more clearly than that men 
have never become holy by the mere culture of 
the intellecL " Where is the wise ? Where is 
the disputer of this world ? Hath not God made 
foolish the wisdom of this world ?' Nothing is 
more definitely asserted in the word of God, or 
more fully and abundantly illustrated in the history 
of man, than that " the world by wisdom, knew not 
God." However the mind may be improved by 
culture, expanded and refined by science, and ele- 
vated by the moralizing influence which mere hu- 
man agency may supply *, there still remains a 
melancholy, nay, an invincible tendency to evil. 
The alienation of the heart, docs not arise from 



280 TRrE RELIGIO:^. 

intellectual imbecility, or intellectual ignorance. 
The love of science is not the love of God. Re- 
ligion is indeed not a little indebted to the re- 
searches of human science^ but unhappily it is no 
uncommon thing for men endued >>'ith the most 
splendid genitis and the most liberal acquisition in 
human science, to be distinguished for depravity of 
heart. True religion is not a mere intellectual 
tlieory, a philosophic system : nor does a man be- 
come the disciple of Clirist in the same way in 
wliich he becomes the disciple of Plato, or New- 
ton. Never was a lesson more effectually taught 
by the experience of our race, than that intellecta 
al culture cannot produce holiness. The learn- 
ing of the Scribes and Pharisees did not prevent 
them from rejecting the Saviour ^ but rather 
qualified and tempted them to stand forth his ma- 
lignant and infuriate opposers. The absurdities 
of a debased pagan ritual, were never confined to 
the ignorant and uninformed. Socrates and 
Seneca, Solon and Lycurgus bowed at the altars 
of Jupiter and Apollo. Idolatry erected her tem- 
ples amid the groves of the Academy, and pub- 
lished her sangumary and licentious code amid all 
the fight and learning of the Augustan age. No 
instance is to be found where a nation, or an in- 
dividual, ever became the friend of God through 
the influences of mere intellectual cultivation. At 
the period when our blessed Lord came into the 
world, intellect had made its highest efforts: phi- 
losophy had exhausted all her vigour and acute- 



TRUE RELIGION. 281 

iiess 5 Greece and Rome had furnished the most 
splendid examples of reasoning and eloquence — 
examples so splendid, that next to the Bible, they 
remain to the present day, the acknowledged 
standards of elegance and power 5 and yet they left 
the world " without God and without hope," and 
full of that " unrighteousness and ungodliness of 
men," against which " wrath is revealed from 
heaven." What has intellectual culture done for 
modern Europe ? What has it done for France 
— the glory of all lands for purely intellectual 
and philosophical research ? There is not a 
combination of more learned or acute men on 
the earth, than the Royal Academy at Paris. 
Nor is there probably any where to be found a 
society of men more ignorant of God and holiness. 
Nor will the institutions of ciml government 
make men holy. Civil government may restrain the 
out-breaking of human corruption ; may prevent 
lawless aggressions upon the welfare of society ; 
may deter the abandoned from injustice and oppres- 
sion ; and while it is "a terror to evil doers," be "a 
praise to those who do well ;" but it can never win 
back the heart of man to God. What civil govern- 
ment can do for men, it has done already. It does 
not make men holy in the best governed Christian 
States. It does not in Britain ; it does not among 
ourselves. It did not in th(^ best governed repub- 
lics and empir(\s of the pagan world. Not cvni 
Antoninus Pius could influence Rome to be either 
holy or virtuous. All the legislative science and 
21* 



282 TRUE RELIGION. 

political advancement which rendered Athens and 
Sparta the models of their age, could not rescue 
them from a superstitious polytheism. Legislators 
as well as philosophers, have failed, and always 
will fail to regenerate the heart. No matter how 
wise and equal the laws ; no matter what princi- 
ples of government, or modes of legislation may be 
adopted and enforced 5 no matter with how much 
skill the affairs of princes are adjusted ; none of 
these things convey the knowledge of hohness and 
salvation. It is an instructive fact, that while pa- 
gan nations were advancing from one degree of 
literary and civil refinement to another, their reli- 
gious character sunk in progressive, if not in pro- 
portioned degeneracy. Not merely did it retain 
its uncultivated barbarism, but waxed worse with 
every accession of human wisdom. From the 
most exalted, or rather the least debasing system, 
that of siderial worship, it descended to " images, 
made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to 
four-footed beasts, and to creeping things.'' Never 
did it reach a lower abyss of degradation, than 
when heathen lands had attained their acme of 
civilization and learning. And in a state thus ab- 
ject did it continue " even under the Ptolemies in 
Egypt, and the Csesars in Rome," till '^ the fullness 
of time was come when God sent forth his Son." 

Have then men ever become holy through the in- 
fluence oi false religions ? Not certainly by pa- 
ganism, as we have already seen. The Persians and 
Mohammedans have, it must be confessed, made 



I 



TRUE RELIGION. 283 

some advances in an apparent moral rectitude be- 
yond the abject wickedness of purely pagan lands. 
The Persians were the descendants of Elam, the 
son of Shem 5 and with the rest of the nations early 
fell away in their apostacy from the worship of the 
true God. The purity of their faith was revived 
in the time of Abraham, but was corrupted again 
before the Babylonish captivity. It was revived 
by Zoroaster, who maintained that there is one 
supreme God, and a general resurrection and retri- 
bution to all according to their deeds. But while 
the Persian religion for centuries held its sway 
over a multitude of minds, it never made men holy. 
"The Persians," says Sismondi in his history of the 
downfall of the Roman empire, " had laws ema- 
nating from despotic power, which preserve order, 
but which secure to a nation neither justice, nor 
happiness. They had that literary culture which 
feeds the imagination, but does not enlighten the 
understanding. Their religion and their aversion 
to idolatry, satisfied the reason, but did not purify 
the heart." It is also worthy of remark, that for 
all that is venerable in antiquity and purity, the 
Persian religion was indebted to the Bible. By 
those who are best informed in oriental literature, 
Zoroaster is represented to have been " cotemj)o- 
rary with Daniel, and if not a Jew, yet perfectly 
acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures."* Nor is 



• Prideaux*8 Connexions, and Graves on tlic Pentateuch. 



284 TRUE RELIGIOX. 

it less true that all that is vahiable in the system of 
Mahomet was drawn from the Scriptures of the 
Old and ]\ew Testament. Colonies of Jews were 
once scattered over Arabia, at a period when the 
religion of the Arabians was polytheism, and when 
there were three hundred and sixty idols in their 
principal temple at the Kaaba at Mecca. The 
character of 31ahomet was austere ; his imagi- 
nation ardent 5 his temperance extreme ; and he 
was disposed to religious meditations and lotly 
reveries. His chief thought at first was to fix 
his own belief, and purify it from the supersti- 
tions of his country. He recognized as God an 
eternal Spunt, omniscient, omnipresent, and inca- 
pable of being represented by any material image. 
He nourished this idea till the age of forty, when 
he resolved to become the reformer of his nation. 
He taught them the knowledge of the one God, 
but he called himself his Prophet. From the time 
he took this character, his life lost its purity, his 
temper its mildness, policy entered into his reli- 
gion, and fraud into his conduct. He dictated the 
Koran, for he could not read or write, and the 
sublimity of its language is to Jiusselmen a proof 
of its inspired character. He admitted six revela- 
tions, — those of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, 
Christ, and his own. The religion of Mahomet 
leaned toward fatalism, but did not deny the infiu- 
ence of the will in human actions. IVor did it con- 
sist in doctrines only, but in the practice of justice 
and charitv. It considers alms-giving the most 



TRUE RELIGION. 285 

rigorous duty 5 and the Koran exacts from a tenth 
to a fifth of a believer's income in charity. It en- 
joins prayer, ablution and fastings. Five times a 
day, a Musselman must pray. Fasts were so ri- 
gid, that during the month of Ramadam, one might 
neither eat, nor drink, nor enjoy any gratification 
from sunrise to sunset. Before the time of Ma- 
homet, the Arabs enjoyed unbounded licence 5 and 
he forbade dissoluteness, only by reducing it within 
the bounds of expediency and law. The blood 
of their enemies was a sure passport to the Mo- 
hammedan Paradise. Every Musselman, indeed, 
however bad, was sure of Paradise, after expiating 
his sins a suitable time in purgatory, not to exceed 
five thousand years. The most favorable exhibi- 
tion of the religion of Mahomet shows its perfect 
powerlessness to form any thing like a spiritual 
character. We have spoken of its immoral ten- 
dencies in a previous lecture ; and it were the 
merest farce to claim for it any spiritual influence. 
We freely grant to these religions all they can 
claim. And the most that can be said of them is, 
that they are not idolatrous. And if they have 
effected something in supplanting the existence of 
idolatry, nothing is more obvious than that their 
influence in this particular is to be attributed to the 
Bible. Wherever indeed, men hav(^ ceased to bow 
down to the sun, moon and stars ; wherever they 
have ceased erecting pillars and statues on tho 
tops of hills and mountains for the purpose of oiVer- 
ing sacrifices to the host of heaven 5 wherever they 



286 TRUE RELIGIOX. 

have ceased erecting their temples, and their ima- 
ges, and offering their fruits to the Hght, the air, 
the wind, the fire, the water, the earth 5 wherever 
they have renounced the grovelhng superstition 
which led them to worship the darkness, the storm, 
the pestilence and the Furies ] wherever they have 
no longer erected monuments to the memory of the 
dead, and worshipped creatures like themselves; 
where they have abandoned their homage of ani- 
mals and reptiles, birds and beasts, plants and 
herbs 5 where the rivers and the woods are no 
longer peopled with imaginary deities ; where each 
favoured city and family has no longer its peculiar 
guardian gods ; where the power of magic is no 
longer recognized, and the influence of oracles and 
augurs, of diviners and soothsayers has been re- 
nounced as idle and vain 5 where it is no longer a 
proof of w isdom to attempt to disclose future events 
by the flight of birds, the recollection of dreams, 
and the inspection of the entrails of beasts ; we 
may say, without the fear of contradiction, that 
this change has been produced by the religion of 
the Bible. Reason has not done it. The institu- 
tions of civil government have not done it. Hu- 
man science has not done it The most fearful 
judgments have not done it. Nothing has done it 
but the Bible. But for the Bible, the vilest idola- 
try w^ould at this hour hold its unbroken sway over 
the w^orld. 

Where then had been the interests of holiness 
without the Bible ? Whatever estimate we may 
/ 



TRUE RELIGIOX. 287 

form of the value of other influences upon the hu- 
man character, this alone is the means of holiness. 
I do not know but here and there an individual 
may be found, who may have become pious with- 
out the truths of the Bible ; but I do not recollect 
any well authenticated instance. " Faith cometh 
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." 
The moral renovation which fits the soul for hea- 
ven is effected by means which correspond with 
its nature. " Of his own will begat he us with the 
word of truth." The Bible alone exhibits those 
appropriate materials for thought which are the 
selected instruments of a renovated character. 
There is no wisdom more unerring, no justice 
more inflexible, no grace more tender, no authority 
more commanding, no entreaty more importunate, 
no instructions more convincing, and no motives 
more persuasive and powerful, than are these ap- 
pointed means of man's conversion — these weapons 
which are "mighty through God" — this sword by 
which the conscience is penetrated, "dividing asun- 
der between the joints and the marrow, the soul 
and the spirit, and proving a discerncr of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart." 

ThcTc is one motive to hoUness which the Bible 
unfolds wliich constitutes its great and distinguish- 
ing peculiarity. It is the Joi:}e of God in tlic^ gift 
of his Son. Ail the motives to h()lin(\ss arc con- 
centrated and coiidcMised here, and pres(Mi(e<l and 
enforced witii a |)ow< r of thouglit and fcelinix that 
leave the most obdurate without (wcuse. ^^ Wo 



288 TRUE RELIGION. 

beseech you by the mercies of God." — here lies 
the strength of the appeal. The love of God in 
Christ is the great expedient of winning the way- 
ward heart. " Holy love from God to man is what 
the gospel reveals ; holy love from man to God is 
what the gospel inspires." The doctrines of the 
cross, in all their richness and variety, in all their 
pecuHarity and tenderness, and in all their hum- 
bhng and abasing influence, possess a marvellous 
adaptation to awaken the slumbering mind. They 
produce within it new and powerful associations. 
While in the most effective manner, they convince 
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, they 
touch all the springs of feehng, and form the 
moral elements of the new man. No other truths 
so deeply affect the mind. " Nothing astonished 
me so much in all the gospel," said a poor con- 
verted African, " as to hear that God is love,'^'^ A 
prouder and more obdurate offender than he, once 
said, "The love of Christ constraineth us." It is 
the glory of the condescending Deity, that " He 
draws with the cords of love." When you tell a 
world that lieth in wickedness, that the God they 
have offended is the God of pardons; when you 
show them the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary, 
and tell them hov/ the divine justice has been ex- 
piated by the death of his Son ; w^hile you give 
force and energy to every other truth, and draw 
around the conscience the cords of every other 
obligation, you make that appeal to gratitude, to 
hope which is peculiarly fitted to encourage the 



TRUE RELIGION. 289 

trembling and move the obdurate. Like the rod 
of Moses it rives the rocks of the desert. Until 
the intelligence reaches it that there is help in the 
mighty Saviour, the agitated mind in vain throws 
around its enquiring glance for a refuge, and is 
driven back to the chambers of its own desolation 
and despondency. " God reconciling the world to 
himself by Jesus Christ," this is the glory of the 
Bible. This is the truth to which the Spirit of all 
grace has given such pre-eminence in disarming 
the hostile heart. Here is the concentrated Hght 
of God's revelation. Amid the thousand studded 
gems which beautify and give such splendour to 
the moral firmament, this is the clear and bright 
constellation which is always above the horizon, 
and pointing high toward the gate of heaven. 
Here are those truths and motives which are the 
mediate causes of a spiritual mind, and between 
which and the operations of the Holy Spirit there 
is such a coincidence, that they become the aliment 
of a spiritual and divine life. He who knows the 
heart of man has selected this as the best method 
of access to the minds he has formed ; and like every 
other appointment of the Deity, it is full of con- 
summate wisdom. Every where the same, it is 
every where effectual in ficcomphshing the pur- 
poses of (itornal mercy, l^^vidence enough there 
is in the world every day, to convince us of the 
superiority of the Bible as the great means of 
holiness and salvation. And better days are yet 
to dawn. Like the rain and the snow, it shall not 



200 TRUE RELIGION. 

return void. Like the sun when he rises upon the 
mists of the ocean, it is destined to exhale all clouds 
of error. Its heavenly light shall penetrate the 
dark corners of our globe , the report of its glad 
tidings, echoing from land to land, shall roll through 
the nations ; while " the heavens shall pour down 
righteousness, and the earth bring forth salvation." 
But there is a caution that is not out of place 
while speaking of the Bible as the means of holi- 
ness. If it is not by the learning and wisdom of 
this world that the soul is fitted for heaven, no 
more is it by the mere learning and literature of 
the Bible. There is reason to fear the cases are 
not few, in which the Bible is regarded more as a 
volume to be described and eulogized, and as fur- 
nishing topics of intellectual research, than as a 
directory to heaven, and a guide to immortality. 
^' The letter killeth." Biblical learning is not piety. 
A man may be a profound critic, an acute con- 
troversialist, an able expositor; his enquiries and 
reasonings may discover an enlarged and compre- 
hensive acquaintance with the sacred volume ; 
he may employ all his resources in the promotion 
of biblical knowledge 5 and yet be at heart a 
stranger to the sanctifying power of truth. In his 
cold walks of theoretical science, he may never 
once visit the Garden or the Cross. Or he might 
gaz3 upon them for half a century with his present 
vision, and never discover the great " mystery of 
godliness." The truths of the Bible are compre- 
hended by the heart. To be destitute of the "sin- 



I 



TRUE RELIGION. 291 

gle eye," is to be blind to its transforming glories. 
" He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is 
love." The gospel is a revelation of love. Chris- 
tianity is love embodied in its purest form. And 
love can be comprehended only by love. I look 
upon no small portion of the biblical criticism of 
the present age as a curse to the Church. Such 
is all the Rationahsm of Germany, and such is the 
modern Unitarianism of our own land. It is a 
cheerless region, where the Rose of Sharon never 
blooms 5 a bleak and wintry sky, where no ray 
from the Sun of righteousness visits the sterile soil. 
How can the branches flourish where not even a 
root is found but is artfully unclasped, or rudely 
torn from the Living Vine ? As soon might you 
expect the feeblest infant to live and thrive cradled 
amid the mountain snows, as the genius of Chris- 
tianity to flourish in such a clime. I tremble at 
recommending the hterature of the Bible, lest I 
should do it at the expense of its spirituality. I 
venerate the Scriptures for their historical re- 
search, for their literary merit, for their legal and 
political wisdom, and for their lofty principles of 
liberty and morality; but I venerate them un- 
speakably more because they are "the wisdom of 
God and the power of God to salvation." Let 
others win the laurels to which human science 
may aspire ; be it our's to guide the wandering to 
the feet of the Saviour ; to lead them to his cross ; 
to strew the cypress over the tomb where he was 



292 TRUE RELIGION. 

laid 5 and there, on that hallowed spot, with them 
renew our faith and our devotion ! 

But what is the character of the religion of 
which the Scriptures are thus instrumental ? 
There is a beauty and sublimity in its spirit which 
throw all other religions into the shade. If there 
is a system of truth which is most obviously in- 
tended and fitted to refine and exalt the human 
character, that system is to be found in the sacred 
Scriptures. When the God of heaven unfolded 
his purpose of forming a people to his praise, and 
giving them a character that should correspond 
with the elevated principles of his own spiritual 
Kingdom, he uttered his design in the following 
strong and emphatic language. "A new heart 
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
you : and I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 
And I will put my spirit within you.'' What 
amazing truths lie concealed under such a design ! 
The character which the Bible forms is formed 
upon the highest model. And what is that model ? 
Is it the insensibility, the asperities, the anger, the 
pride, the egotism, the worldliness which are so 
natural to men ? Is it the cold indifference of a 
Stoical philosophy ? Is it the affected tranquillity 
and ungoverned voluptuousness of the disciples of 
Epicurus ? Is it the rank, and wealth, and scep- 
ticism of the Academics? Is it the intellectual 
rashness and moral phantoms of the modern Phi- 
losophists of Europe? No, it is none of these* 



TRUE RELIGION. 293 

These have had their day, and done what they 
could to exorcise the foul fiend from the human 
heart, and left it more corrupt and wicked than 
before. The Author of this great and venerated 
book, by this instrumentality, imparts to men his 
own spirit y forms them in his own image '^ com- 
municates to them the elements of his own dicine 
excellence. It is a character never understood 
by the world before, and one which none even of 
the princes of this world knew. The late celebra- 
ted Robert Hall, in a discourse of unrivalled ex- 
cellence upon the influence of modern Infidelity 
remarks, that " infidelity robs the universe of all 
finished and consummate excellence, even in idea. 
The admiration of perfect wisdom and goodness 
for which we are formed, and which kindles such 
unspeakable rapture in the soul, finding in the re- 
gions of scepticism nothing to which it corres- 
ponds, droops and languishes. The idea of Deity 
is composed of the richest elements. In the cha- 
racter of a benevolent Parent and Almighty 
Ruler, it embraces whatever is venerable in wis- 
dom, whatever is awful in authority, whatever is 
touching in goodness. Human excellence is 
blended with many im|)crfections, and seen under 
many limitations. It is beheld only in detached 
and separate; j)ortions, nor ever appears in any 
one character whole and entire. So that whrii in 
imitation of the Stoics, we wish to form out of 
those fragments the notion of a perfectly wis(^ and 
good man, we know it is a mere fiction of tho 
25* 



294 TRUE RELIGION. 

mind, without any real being in whom it is em- 
bodied and reahzed. In the belief of a Deity, 
these conceptions are reduced to reality: the scat- 
tered rays of an ideal excellence are concentrated, 
and become the real attributes of that being with 
whom we stand in the nearest relation, who sits 
supreme at the head of the universe, and pervades 
all nature with his presence." Although in no- 
thing does man fallen and unregenerate now re- 
semble this exalted portrait, yet is it the great de- 
sign of the Bible to recover and restore him to 
this pristine integrity 5 to elevate him above his 
moral debasement, and re-invest him with the 
moral dignity, which shall ultimately make him 
" like unto the angels," and " perfect as his Father 
in heaven is perfect." 

God is light. So is the religion of the Bible. 
It has no fellowship with darkness. Not one of 
its graces springs from stupidity, or ignorance, but 
all of them from the knowledge of God, and from 
a clear, connected, and comprehensive view of his 
truth. False religions are founded in darkness. 
The religion of the Bible, like its Author, dwells 
in light. Light is its element. God also is love. 
And so is the religion of the Bible. " He that 
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. 
He that loveth not, knoweth not God." There is 
a love which extends itself to ewery sensitive na- 
ture within its knowledge and influence 5 which 
overlooks the limits of place, birth, and condition, 
and bestows its affections in accordance with the 



TRUE RELIGION. 295 

character, capacity, and importance of its objects; 
which seeketh not its own, and terminates on ends 
which leave out of sight every personal and indi- 
vidual interest : and such a spirit is the fragrance 
and perfume breathed every where through the 
Bible. 

The views and spirit of this world are widely 
diffvjrent from the views and spirit that are trans- 
fused into the soul by the Holy Scriptures. The 
spirit of the world is the spirit of pride and inor- 
dinate self-esteem. It is the pride of talent and 
beauty, the pride of wealth and accomplishments, 
and the pride of rank and office. It lives for the 
praise of men. In place of this, the Bible imparts 
the loveliest of all the graces, a heaven-born hu- 
mility ; a lowliness of mind ; a deep sense of un- 
worthiness in the sight of God ; a modest estimate 
of one's own worth, and an unassuming deport- 
ment before the world. It is a self-condemning, 
self-abasing spirit under the sentence of the divine 
law because we have sinned, and because there is 
mercy through Jesus Christ. It is a grace so re- 
sphndent, that even the unfallcn might envy it. 
" Before honour is humility." The Bible commends 
a humble religion. Its love is humble; its faith is 
humble ; its repentance is humble ; its hopes, its joys, 
its raptures arc all humble. Its heaven is humble, 
and for nothing is it so happy or desirable as that 
it is a world of everlasting humility. Tru(^ gri^at- 
ness is no where found on earth, except in an 
humble mind. And never is the archaimel more 



296 TRUE RELIGION. 

elevated, more truly great, than when he bows 
his head low before the eternal throne. The 
spirit of the world is obduracy and self-will. 
It is invincible hardness of heart. It is impeni- 
tence that cannot be subdued. It is inflexible per- 
severance in sin. Truth cannot enlighten it , au- 
thority cannot control it , wrath cannot break, nor 
the tenderest mercy move or melt its persisting 
purpose. In place of this, the Bible imparts ten- 
derness and contrition of mind. Under its soul- 
subduing influence, the spirit that never shrunk 
from danger, nor wept under suffering, turns pale 
at temptation, shrinks from sin, weeps over past 
follies, and looks on him whom men have pierced, 
and mourns. The spirit of the world is grasp- 
ing and covetous. It is inordinately desirous ot 
wealth, and excessively eager to obtain and possess 
the treasures of time. It is gay, or pensive, as se- 
cular prospects wax, or wane. It is stagnant and 
spiritless, only when it sees there is nothing to 
gain, or to lose by enterprise. Be it disappointed 
or gratified, the more vehement are its desires, 
and never is it so satisfied as to say, It is enough. 
In place of this, the Bible imparts a tranquil and 
happy confidence in the wisdom of Divine Pro- 
vidence, a grateful acknowledgment of the daily 
mercies which God bestows, a moderation in 
those desires which are directed to worldly enjoy- 
ments, and that lifted eye which no longer fastens 
on earth, but looks upward, where its resources 
are undiminished, its treasures never fade, and a 



TRUE RELIGION. 297 

crown of righteousness awaits all who love their 
Lord's appearing. The spirit of the world is the 
spirit of ambition. It is the desire of power. 
The object that glitters, and enchants, and 
vanishes, is to be clothed in purple, to sway the 
sceptre, and wear the diadem. And the more this 
ambitious desire is gratified, the more is poison 
injected into the deadly plague. In place of this, 
the Bible imparts a deep impression of the vanity 
of all things beneath the sun ^ a conviction that 
the fashion of this world passeth away ; that the 
yoke of Christ is rather to be desired than the 
proudest sceptre , and that it were better to be the 
servant of the king of kings, than the emperor of 
the world. The spirit of the world is the spirit of 
self-indulgence and guilty pleasure. The men 
of the world are lovers of pleasure more than 
the lovers of God. Like the prodigal son, they 
have wandered from their fathers' house, to feed 
on the husks of the wilderness. They are eager 
for enjoyment, and find it in dissipation of thought, 
of feeling, and of deportment, and amid the alter- 
nate servitude and liberty, pains and pleasures 
which constitute their varied adventures. Their 
senses are flattered by the fleeting illusion, and 
they can speak of nothing, and think of nothing, 
but pleasure. Though made up of so many pieces 
and scraps, that you wonder they arc not wearied 
in gathering it up, yet have they no other desire 
and no other object. Lawless pleasure, in all 
the forms of novelty and excess, notwithstanding 



208 TRUE RELIGIOX. 

its shame, its infamy, its ruin, is the idol of their 
hearts and the law of their existence. In place 
of this, the Bible imparts the love of God and duty. 
Pleasures it reveals, but they are found in doing 
the will of God 5 in accomplishing the great end 
of human existence, and in those vivid hopes which 
light up the dawn, and noon-day, and setting sun 
of an ever brightening existence. Those who 
have drank into its spirit do not live for the plea- 
sures of earth, but are carried forward by a sort 
of spiritual instinct, beyond this dense and earthly 
wall by which they are environed. The Bible 
presents a prospect as much brighter and wider 
than the pleasures of the W'orldling, as are the 
pleasures of holy thought and feeling and expecta- 
tion, superior to the day dreams, and grovelling 
pleasures of sense. The spirit of the world is the 
spirit of unbelief. It is the spirit that rejects the 
truth of God ; that has no confidence in his decla- 
rations, and distrusts his promises and faithfulness. 
It leans to self. It has no wants, timidity, or de- 
spondency, which its own presumption cannot re- 
lieve. And not until corruptions have kept their 
ground so long as to be absolutely ruinous, and 
the day of hope so far spent as to be literally ex- 
hausted, does the soul that is under the dominion 
of unbelief, cry, and cry in vain, " Lord, save, or I 
perisli P' In place of this, the Bible imparts 
faith in God and confidence in his word. It 
gives an affectionate, practical trust in the divine 
testimony as recorded on its own sacred pages, 



TRUE RELIGION. 299 

and that unshaken confidence in the divine charac- 
ter, government, and veracity, which becomes the 
great prhiciple and impulse of action. It gives 
subsistence to hope and demonstration to evidence ; 
and while it appropriates grace to help in every 
time of need, it anticipates blessings, which, though 
unseen by the eye, are enjoyed by the heart. The 
spirit of the world is an unforgiving and revenge- 
ful spirit. It seeks injury for injury, and blood 
for blood. What a mournful comment upon the 
character of man is the savage maxim, " Revenge 
is sweet !" In place of this, the Bible enjoins, 
'^Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; 
do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them 
which despitefully use you and persecute you.'' 
This is a spirit so unnatural to man, that it has 
been reproached as unreasonable and absurd, and 
the ancients had not even a word to express it, or 
if they had, it represented it as a vice rather than 
a virtue. But how worthy of its Author ! how 
sublime! how truly it bears the stamp of divinity! 
The wisest moralists of the wisest nations and 
ages represented revenge as a mark of a noble 
mind. But how different from the mind of Clirist! 
and at what an infinite remove from the generous, 
exalted spirit of him who, as he was sinking upon 
the cross, prayed for his murderers! The religion 
of the Bible stands opposed to all the selfish and 
mercenary afiections of the human heart, and just 
80 far as it prevails, eradicates and destroys them. 
"If there b(^ any virtue*, and if there bo aiiy praise,'' 



300 TRUE RELIGION. 

they are found in the lofty spirit and high moral 
virtues of a self-renouncing religion. 

Such is the exalted spirit of the Bible, and such 
some of the great and distinguishing pecuharities 
of the religion it inculcates and imparts. There 
is one exalted Personage, and only one, in whom 
the high dignity of the Christian character was 
fully and perfectly illustrated. The example of 
the man Christ Jesus perfectly accords with his 
doctrines and precepts. He copied out the reli- 
gion of the Bible in his life. His spirit was 
known, and developed, and is perfectly under- 
stood. He was rick, and for our sakes became 
poor 5 happy, and for us became a man of sorrows 
and acquainted with griefs 5 the Prince of life, 
and died for us on the cross, that we might be 
rich, and honoured, and happy, and live with 
him. The only reward he sought was the reward 
which alone could gratify his benevolent mind : — 
diseases healed — sorrows soothed — tears wiped 
away — ignorance enlightened — the wayward coun- 
selled — the desponding encouraged — the unholy 
made pure — the guilty forgiven — the lost saved. 
This was his reward. When men could not 
ascend to him, he descended to them. When 
they neither deserved, nor sought his favour, he 
gave it undeserved and unsought. The abjectness, 
the sufferings, the sins of men were the magnet 
that drew him forth from his retirement and ex- 
cited his commiseration. No toil could weary, no : 
obstacles hinder, no opposition discourage, no de- 



TRUE RELIGION. 301 

lay interrupt, no cold and thankless insensibility 
dishearten him. From Bethlehem to Calvary, he 
went about doing good. The history of men fur- 
nishes here and there a splendid illustration of ac- 
tive, self-denying, devoted piety 5 and we observe 
and remember it as a rare event. It is like a 
stream of water in a dry place — a green spot in 
the desert — an oasis amid Arabian sands. The 
life of Christ has no such inequalities. It does 
not strike us by its occasional and novel exhibi- 
tions, for they are uniform and constant. There 
is something greatly affecting in the Saviour's 
spirit. It is more than human. It belongs not to 
earth. It was never found except in his own im- 
maculate bosom. 

Whatever there is of true religion in the world 
resembles such a piety as this, though it falls far 
short of it. And how unspeakably above the 
famed excellencies of heathen lands ! It is piety 
altogether of an original character. The heathen 
genius never conceived it. It never entered the 
mind of this world's philosophy to form such a 
character as that of Paul or Howard. Such de- 
velopements of mind and heart never would have 
been made but for the Bible. It is not easy to 
conceive of a deeper, darker chasm than that 
which would be made by the absence of these 
principles which have formed thousands of cha- 
racters assiniilattid to these, and given so high a 
direction to minds whose lofty movement is at 
2G 



302 TRUE RELIGIOPT. 

such a distance from the low and abject spirit of 
this unbeheving and self-indulgent world. 

Let it not be supposed that this is a light obliga- 
tion under which the world is placed to a super- 
natural revelation. Holiness is the highest attain- 
ment of a rational creature. It is the greatest good 
which man ever can acquire. It is the greatest 
good in the universe. It is greater than wealth, | 
greater than pleasure, than honour, than happiness. I 
It is the only good that may be sought at all times, 
under all circumstances, and at every hazard. It 
is the only good that may be sought as an end and 
for its own sake. A man is not necessarily praise- 
worthy because he is happy, nor blameworthy be- 
cause he is unhappy. Seek therefore, my young ) 
friends, not to be affluent and honourable, — no, nor 
mainly to be happy. Seek what is more sublimely 
excellent, seek to be virtuous and holy. Seek that 
your hearts may be subdued and won to God by 
the power of his own truth. No natural amiable- 
ness of disposition, no mere cultivation of intellect, 
no good name in the world, no unimpeached recti- 
tude in your transactions with your fellow-men, no 
punctuality in your attendance upon the ordinan- 
ces of the sanctuary, and no external relation to 
the church of God can be a substitute for that in- 
ternal holiness which is an indispensable prepara- 
tion for the heavenly w orld. O, when will men un- 
derstand and feel that nothing possesses importance 
compared with what relates to God and eternity ! 



THUE RELIGION. 303 

Nothing within the range of human thought de- 
serves consideration compared with this. Never was 
there stronger evidence of folly than that man pre- 
sents, who chooses this world for his portion. If 
tears could quench the fires of that world of tor- 
ment, those fires would be quenched at the remem- 
brance of the folly that preferred this world to the 
salvation of the soul. And if tears should be ever 
shed in heaven, it will be at the remembrance of 
the supineness, the indifference with which those 
of you who have hope toward God are directing 
your way toward that '^ exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." 

A few short years, if not before, and you and I 
shall descend to the tomb. Time passes swiftly 
over the head that rests beneath the clods of the 
valley. As sleep that overtakes us at night, leads 
us imperceptibly and gently through its long 
watches, and we neither number nor heed its 
hours, so will coming centuries revolve, and on the 
morning of a new world, we shall wake as from a 
dream to stand before the tribunal of the great 
Judge. To-day, we are upon the stream of time ; 
to-morrow, we are floated forth upon the ocean of 
eternity. There is no intermediate state of being 
— no line of separation between this world and the 
next. Another step, and we have entered on the 
world of everlasting retribution. But what retri- 
bution is it to which we are destined ? Momen- 
tous question ! Is it to that world of peace and 
joy 5 or is it to those regions of perturbation and 



304 TRUE RELIGION". 

pain ? Is it to those calm skies where no tempest 
rages and no billows roll 5 or is it to the eternal 
agitations of that lake of fire ? O, tell me, were it 
not a melancholy state of existence to be gliding 
down the stream of time under the awful uncer- 
tainty whether it will land you in the realms of 
bliss, or the regions of wo ? 



LECTURE XL 



THE PRE-EMINENCE OF THE BIBLE FOR THE INFLU- 
ENCES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



We have already remarked that the Bible fur- 
nishes all those truths and motives which are the 
appropriate materials of a spiritual mind, and as 
such constitute the great and only means of per- 
sonal holiness. Truth and love are the weapons 
which the Author of the Scriptures makes use of 
in the great moral contest that is going on in our 
world. In this respect, the religion of the Bible 
differs from all other religions. Other religions 
have employed force, authority, stratagem : the 
power of the sword, the authority of princes, the 
policy of priests and statesmen have all been 
made use of to accomplish their selfish designs. 
But the Bible knows nothin": of this. Thoujj^h it 
reveals a system of truth, and recpiires allVn tii.ns 
every where opposed to the selfishness of the lui- 
26* 



306 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

I 

man hearty and the pride of human reason, — a sys- 
tem at war with human worldliness and sensuahty, 
and that neither flatters the pride, nor tempts the 
avarice, nor pampers the lusts of men ; yet does it 
reject with indignation every attempt to influence 
them, except by considerations which commend 
themselves to the conscience. Frank and ingenu- 
ous in the expression of its claims, candid and open 
in the designs it aims at accomplishing, it counts 
on success only as its truths enhghten the under- 
standing, awaken and regulate the conscience, and 
purify the heart. True religion has its seat in the 
soul. It is a matter not of external forms and ob- 
servances, but of conviction and feeling. No man 
possesses it any farther than he voluntarily em- 
braces its principles and feels their power. The 
Bible therefore must necessarily depend for its tri- 
umphs, not upon the authority of human govern- 
ments, or the tricks of sordid policy^ or any con- 
cealment of its ultimate objects, or any appeals to 
human selfishness, but upon its own inherent ex- 
cellence and high-born claims. Falsehood and 
sophistry never made a man at heart the friend of 
the Bible. Every true believer in the word of God 
has the witness within his own bosom, that he is 
not led away by " cunningly devised fables and the 
craftiness of men,^ but that his confidence in it is 
justified by the begun and growing conformity of 
his heart to the heavenly character which this 
word requires. The truths of the Bible have been 
brought home to his own soul "in demonstration 



I 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 307 

of tbe Spirit and of power." There is an agency 
that gives them effect which is exerted by God 
himself. We do not hear this still, small voice, nor 
is it in any way an agency that is the object of our 
senses. The hand that accomplishes the work is 
unseen, and all that we can behold is the work it- 
self accomplished. It is the supreme, the almighty 
agency of God, by the unseen power of his Holy 
Spirit. It is an influence that controuls the thoughts, 
dispositions and affections, and that makes the 
Bible the " wisdom of God and the power of God 
to salvation." 

Now this constitutes one great pre-eminence of 
the Holy Scriptures, and is fitted to show the obli- 
gations of the world to this sacred volume. It has 
higher claims to our regard even than the excel- 
lence of its truths. It reveals the existence and 
interposition of an omnipotent agent, known in the 
method of redemption by Jesus Christ, whose pro- 
vince it is to enlighten and renovate the heart, and 
give power and energy to his own revelations. 
This can be affirmed of no false religion. Just be- 
fore the author of the gospel left our world for his 
throne in the heavens, he promised his disciples 
that he would vsond the heavenly Paraclete, who 
should " reprove the world of sin, of righteousness 
and of judgment ;" who " should guide into all 
truth;" who " should take of the things that are 
Christ's, and show them unto his po()|)le." The 
religion of the Bible therefore has this high and 
peculiar pledge of its efiicacy, that it is associated 



808 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

with an omnipotent agency, which, by its con- 
troul over the intellectual faculties and moral dis- 
positions, renders the truth which God has re- 
vealed effectual in the moral transformation of 
men. 

God has revealed himself in the Scriptures as 
One in Three. So distinct are the three, that 
they sustain distinct offices in the work of Re- 
demption, and possess the properties of distinct 
persons 5 and yet so intimately are they identified 
in the divine nature, that they are the One only 
living and true Jehovah. This is a great mystery, 
and we receive it on the testimony of God. The 
Holy Spirit is not a mere influence, or power, or 
emanation of the Deity, but a living agent, to 
w^hom the Scriptures ascribe intelligence, choice, 
and powder. He is represented as teaching, in- 
structing, dictating, commanding, commissioning, 
sending forth, convincing, sanctifying, and bearing 
witness. To him are appropriated the true and 
proper names of the Deity. He is spoken of as 
eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, and as one who 
is worshipped as God. He is the direct and im- 
mediate Author of the Scriptures, while miracu- 
lous gifts and operations are every where ascribed 
to his power. There are also internal operations 
of the Spirit 5 that is, operations immediately ex- 
erted upon the mind itself. It is his province to 
illuminate the ignorant and benighted 5 to awaken 
the thoughtless; to convince the obdurate; to 
renew and sanctify the heart; to comfort and seal 



/ 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 309 

the heirs of salvation for their final inheritance, 
and fit them for the glory to be hereafter revealed. 
The truths of the Scriptures, though divine in 
their origin, are only the instrumental cause of 
all holy impressions. Their saving efl^cacy, in all 
casf?;, depends on the power and agency of the 
Holy Spirit. Nor are the nature and mode of 
this influence altogether undefined. It is in every 
instance, connected with the truth 5 imparting to 
the mind clear perceptions of what God has re- 
vealed in his word, and rendering these percep- 
tions impressive and effectual to the formation of 
a spiritual character. Truth is the motive of the 
change, and the agency of the spirit its cause. 

The terms and illustrations by which the Scrip- 
tures represent the work of the Spirit are strong- 
ly significant. Sometimes it is represented by 
the metaphorical language of the ''new birth." 
When, in the moral history of man, a rebel be- 
comes a child, it is because he is "begotten, not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
of man, but of God." Sometimes it is exhibited 
as a " new creation." When from the confusion, 
darkness, and disorder of the natural mind, men 
arc formed anew, and adorned with all the glories 
of a spiritual transformation 5 they are " his work- 
manship, created anew in Christ Jesus after the 
image of him that created them." Sometimes it 
is set forth as a " resnrection from the dead." If 
the dead in sin burst the bars of their cold sepul- 
chre and come forth 5 it is because " he quickens 



310 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

them," and his Spirit is the sole author of this new 
and holy hfe. If the apostate child of Adam 
becomes the child of God ; if his moral nature 
lives by new culture, and his faculties acquire a 
new developement 5 if he sustains new relations, 
possesses new tastes, preferences, and pleasures 5 
if he is devoted to new pursuits 5 if he has a new 
heart and a new spirit ^* it is from '' the washing 
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost." " He that hath wrought him for this 
self-same thing is God." 

I need not tell you that a different theology 
than this has, to no inconsiderable extent, per- 
vaded the Church of God in almost every age. 
Pelagius, as early as the fifth century of the Chris- 
tian era, taught, that " for us to be men, is of God 5 
but that for us to be righteous, is of ourselves." 
Of the same class are those teachers in modern 
times, who affirm, that while God cannot regene- 
rate men, men regenerate themselves ! We have 
no fellowship with views so directly opposed to 
the instructions of the Bible, and so utterly at va- 
riance with the experience of good men. I have 
oflen wondered at the rashness of those who have 
ventured thus to tamper with principles of such 
extreme delicacy and importance. There is no- 
thing we should approach with greater fear and 
trembHng than the work of that Almighty Spirit, 
to whom so much is entrusted, and whose office 
and honours are protected by such fearful sanc- 
tions* It is easy to give a wrong touch to the Ark 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 311 

of God. The great principle of the Spirit's influ- 
ence is to the Christian system what the main 
spring and shaft are to a delicate and exact ma- 
chinery. It is an impulse of prodigious power, 
and may not be jostled out of its place by curious 
and unhallowed hands. I cannot but regard the 
immediate, effectual interposition of the Holy 
Spirit, superadded to all the means of grace and 
salvation, as one of those fundamental truths that 
are settled in heaven^ and ought never to be un- 
settled on earth. It was just observed that the 
error to which we refer is at variance with all 
sound experience. What is more common than 
for men under strong convictions to be thrown into 
deep distress and agony from a view of the difficul- 
ties in the way of their conversion ? What pious 
man has not been deely sensible of his insufficien- 
cy to change his own heart, and a thousand times 
gratefully acknowledged that the change is to be 
attributed to a cause without himself? Who has 
not evidence within his own bosom, which is in- 
stead of a thousand exterior arguments, that there 
are obstacles to be surmounted in this great \;.>rk, 
to which nothing is achnjuatc but divine power? 
Nay, is not this insufficiency one of the first les- 
sons in the school of Christ ? 

I have seen men who went up to the house of 
God with th(^ iMilxMiding spirit of rebellion a<^^iinst 
their Maker, who went away with the meekness 
and docility of little children. I have seen men of 
all ranks and ages, of all opinions and prejudices 



312^^ DIVINE INFLUEXCE. 

found in Christian lands, of every degree and va- 
riety of information from the shrewd jurist to the 
humble artizan, of all dispositions and characters, 
become alike and together the subjects of a moral 
transformation, the reality of which has been de- 
monstrated by a subsequent life of practical godli- 
ness, and under the influence of light and motives 
which they had often previously resisted and 
which others around them still resist. How are 
these moral phenomena to be accounted for ? If 
there be a divine influence in regeneration, there 
is nothing ambiguous, nothing doubtful, nothing 
wonderful in such results, except as they are ex« 
pressive of wonderful power and mercy. When 1 
see the forests bend and the sturdy oaks tremble ; 
when I hear the tempest howl and behold the 
ocean foam with fury 5 though I see neither the 
cloud nor the air, I know there is " a strong and 
mighty w^ind." So when I see a whole assembly 
moved as the trees of the wood , when I behold 
the fountains of human depravity broken up, its 
deep abyss boil, its troubled waters cast up mir^ 
and dirt, and after the storm listen " to the still, 
small voice 5 I know that the arm of the King 
eternal, invisible and immortal is made bare. 
"The wind blov,eth w^here it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit." 

The change of which the spirit of God is the 
author is a moral, a spiritual change. It does not 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 313 

effect a transformation in the essential properties 
of the soul 5 but rather so enhghtensand influences 
its existing properties, that, in a moral view, it be- 
comes a new creature, and possesses altogether 
another spiritual character. It does not impart 
any new intellectual faculty, but rather enriches 
faculties that have become impoverished by sin ; 
directs faculties that have been ill-directed 5 im- 
parts sensitiveness and integrity to the conscience, 
and holiness to the heart. Nor is the influence 
that causes it, an influence that is necessary in 
order to originate, or sustain the obligations to ho- 
liness. There is enough of intellect and conscience 
in the most reprobate sinner to make it every way 
suitable and proper that he should be required to 
be holy, even though the influences of the Holy 
Spirit were forever withheld. The obligations to 
holiness are destroyed by nothing short of idiocy. 
" He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to 
him it is sin." 

The reasons for the necessity of this divine in- 
fluence may be stated in very few words. All men 
by the fall lost communion with God. Not only 
have they no original righteousness, but deeply 
seated original sin. Mental blindness, unfaithful- 
ness of conscience, and a total depravation of all 
the moral aflbctions constitute the character of 
every natural man. That character is written in 
three memorable words, — " enmity against God.'' 
Now it were marvellous if such a man were the 
cause of his own regeneration. I^ove produced by 
21 



314 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

enmity — ^holiness caused by sin — light created by 
darkness! The reason then why a divine influ- 
ence is necessary is, that men never vs^ill, and never 
can become holy without it. " Ye will not come 
unto me that ye might have life ^ — no man can 
come to me, except the Father who hath sent me 
draw him." Both these representations are alike 
entitled to our confidence. Until God draws them, 
no matter what the variety and novelty of their 
mental developements, no matter what the rigour 
of their external reformation, no matter what the 
strength of their most solemn purposes of repent- 
ance, they depart farther from him. 

It has been already intimated that the Divine 
Spirit acts on the mind itself. A misconception 
of the truth in this particular has induced error. 
The disciples of the Arminian school do not, in 
expressed terms, deny the doctrine of divine influ- 
ence. And yet they virtually deny it. Dr. Whitby 
himself concedes that " God vouchsafes some in- 
ward operations, or assistance to incline men to 
what is good, and work conversion in them 5" while 
at the same time he asserts, that this influence is 
confined " to a more clear representation of the 
truth^ that we may have a fuller evidence and 
stronger conviction of it." Such is the modern 
doctrine of the same school. Men are not want- 
ing at the present day who afRrm that all the influ- 
ence which the spirit of God exerts is a moral, or 
suasory influence; and that it is impossible the 
mind should be subjected to any other. But this 



DIVIXE INFLUENCE. 



315 



whole system is untrue. Who has told us that he 
who created the human mind cannot controul and 
govern it 5 and that when light and motives can no 
longer influence its course, by the same voice by 
which " he spake and it was done, and commanded 
and it stood fast," so express his omnipotent will 
that the sinner shall turn and live ? What is there 
in the laws of mind to prevent omnipotence from 
arresting its attention, impressing its conscience, 
and changing its affections? Away with all this 
philosophy^ falsely so called I The single ques- 
tion is, does the spirit of God, in changing the heart 
through the intervention of truth, act upon the 
truth^ or upon the mind ? How does it act upon 
the truth ? Does it change it ? does it present it 
in such a way that the hostile mind falls in with 
it ? The door is closed. The mind itself is inac- 
cessible. The heart must be first opened, as was 
the heart of Lydia when she received the things 
that were spoken by Paul. The Saviour made use 
of clay to open the eyes of him that was born 
blind. But it was not the clay that opened them, 
but the Saviour himself. And though the analogy 
does not hold in all respects, it illustrates the 
thought we wish to convey. The change in re- 
generation is effected by tbe Holy Spirit through 
the truth, while the influence of the Spirit is ex- 
erted, not on the truth, but on the understanding 
and heart. Men may not always know how this 
moral transformation was effected, except that it 
was by an inllucuice above all the power of second 



316 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

causes. With the man who was born blind, they 
can say, " One thing I know, that whereas I was 
once bhnd, I now see.'' And if any doubt the im- 
mediate power of God in their conversion, with 
him they might well reply, " Why herein is a mar- 
vellous thing, that ye know not whence he is, and 
yet he hath opened mine eyes !" 

What is the change effected in regeneration ? 
Is it a mere resolution to forsake the ways of sin 
and death ? Is it the mere preference of religious 
duties and a religious life to the world ? What 
then prevents the anxious and convinced sinner 
from being converted, when he forms resolution ■ 
upon resolution to become the child of God, and 
when, amid the agonies of his conviction, the w^orld 
to him is a mere cypher? What prevents the 
dying sinner from being converted, w^hen he w^ould 
give ten thousand worlds for one smile of mercy ? 
What prevents the benighted sinner from being 
converted, when, in contempt of every worldly in- 
terest, he prostrates himself beneath the idol-car? 
What prevents the self-righteous sinner from being 
converted, when he " gives all his goods to feed the 
poor, and his body to be burned," in order to ob- 
tain the favour of God ? Regeneration lies deeper 
than this, else might it indeed be effected by moral 
suasion. It consists in a " new heart and a new 
spirit." It is a state of mind that hates sin and 
loves holiness ; that believes the record that God 
has given of his Son, and trusts in him alone for 
salvation \ that not only resolves to love Godj but 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 3l7 

loves him, — more than the world, more than self^ 
more than every thing. In effecting such a 
change, there are difficulties which no influence 
merely suasory, be it human, angelic, or divine, 
can remove. There is not a consideration in the 
universe sufficiently alluring to win, or weighty 
enough to break, a supremely selfish heart. The 
Holy Sinr'it imparts no omnipotence to motives; 
he exerts it himself. They do not open the eyes 
of the blind, but he opens them. They do not 
take away the heart of stone and give the heart 
of flesh 5 he does it, himself "• working in men, to 
wiU and to do of his own good pleasure. 

But you will naturally ask. Is this influence ef- 
fectual, wherever it is exerted? It is eflfectual. It 
overcomes resistance. The struggle of the* de- 
praved mind, and all its angry conflict with truth 
and motives is over, when the mighty Spirit speaks. 
No sooner docs he touch the heart, than the work 
is accomplished. The effect is produced just as 
certainly as the influence is exerted. The cause 
is controlling and decisive. It acts upon the will 
and destroys resistance. It is " effectual calling." 
And it is a signal act of rnighhj power — a power 
that speaks into being, what had no being before 
— a power that lays its commands on things that 
do not exist, and c^ffi'ctually enforces obedience 
No laws of matter or of mind can accom|)lish (Iiis 
mighty work. No means, no s(H'ond caus('s can 
accoin|)lish it. Parents cannot arcomplish it by 
all their solicitude ami faithfulness. Christians ( .m- 
27* 



318 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

not accomplish it by all their expostulations and 
counsel. Ministers cannot accomplish it by all 
their preaching. Bibles and Sabbaths cannot ac- 
complish it by all their combined and concentrated 
energy. The law cannot accomplish it by its ter- 
rors, nor the gospel by its tenderness. The se- 
lectest mercies cannot accomplish it, nor the hea- 
viest judgments. Wars, earthquakes and pestilence 
cannot accompHsh it. The rending rocks, the 
deep thunder, the vivid lightning, cannot accom- 
plish it. Angels cannot accomplish it by all their 
watchfulness and guardianship. The Spirit of 
God alone accomplishes it, and by the excellency 
of his power. 

It is not unnatural also to inquire, whether this 
influence is extended to all ? If it were, one thing 
is certainly true, that all w^ould become holy, and 
finally saved. It is therefore a sovereign influence. 
It is imparted and withheld, not without reason ; 
not without the best of reasons 5 but for reasons 
unknown to us. In this, as in other things, the 
Sovereign Arbiter does not treat all alike. It is 
not extended to all to whom God is able to extend 
it, but to all to whom he is pleased to extend \i. 
There is a theory which affirms that God shows 
mercy to as many as he is able to show mercy ; 
while the theory of the Bible unequivocally and in 
strong contrast affirms, that he extends this agency 
to as many as he sees best, and " hath mercy on 
whom he will have mercy." It required no more 
efifort in Omnipotence to create the world, than to 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 319 

create an atom; and it requires no more effort 
from him to regenerate one man, than another. 
If you ask why he ever withholds this gracious in- 
fluence, I must cover my face and be silent. Or 
if I give utterance to a single thought while dwell- 
ing on this inscrutable mystery, can only say, 
'' Even so, Father ! for so it seemed good in thy 
sight." This is one of the " secret things which 
belong to God." 

Will any think it strange that with this last 
characteristic of the Spirit's influence, I still say, 
that it is one of the distinguishing glories of the 
Bible ? It has no greater glory 5 nor has the Di- 
vine mind any greater mercy than is here unfolded. 
And those who deny him this, take away the only 
ground of hope. We may say of this great truth, 
what the great Reformer so justly said of another. 
It is the " Articulus^ ant stantis^ aiit cadcntis ec- 
clesi^.'^'^ With it the Church and the Bible stand, 
or fall. The denial of it is a virtual subversion of 
the whole gospel. Though too searching a prin- 
ciple, and too humbling to the pride of man not to 
be frittered away, unless there be great self-renun- 
ciation and simplicity of spirit, and great union of 
heart, of (effort, and of prayer ; yet can it never 
be too highly ap|)re('iated. lOvery holy aflection 
and purpose that finds a dwelhng among men, and 
that is cherished in the cold bosoms of this low 
world, is from this <'ternal source. Th<» holy and 
happy emotions that light up so many smiles with- 
in the otherwise cheerless and curtained chandxTs 



320 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

of the soul; the benignant designs that diffuse 
such a charm over this otherwise desponding 
world, and throw their perspective into the far 
vale of futurity, would all be turned again into 
gloom and darkness, but for this power of the 
Highest that overshadows them. " Upon the land 
of my people shall come up thorns and briers 5 yea, 
upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. The 
pastures shall be forsaken 5 the multitude of the 
city shall be left a joy of wild asses, a pasture of 
flocks, until the Spirit be poured from on high." 
The shades of night will never be chased away ; 
the rigours and silence of winter will lock up the 
world in its icy chains, until this Sun of Righte- 
ousness arise. It is the pre-eminence of the Bible 
that it discloses this dispensation of the Spirit. 

May we not easily see in view of this great 
peculiarity of the Scriptures, why it is that the 
gospel of the Son of God has made such progress 
in our world ? The strength of false religions lies 
in the power of custom and habit, in the most un- 
worthy appeals to the passions and interests of 
men, in the constraints of human authority and in 
the sword. They have all failed for want of some 
inherent power, some attendant influence upon 
the mind to render them effectual ; — an influence 
which they could not secure because they were 
false. Not one of them has been able to stand 
forth alone, and perpetuate itself unaided by arti- 
fice, or arms, or the power of the civil govern- 
ment ; and none of them could look to any higher 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 321 

source for aid. Mahomet was occupied three 
years in making fourteen converts. After seven 
years effort, when he fled from Mecca to Medina, 
he numbered but one hundred and one followers. 
Neither the religion of Mahomet, nor any of the 
forms of paganism carried with them their own 
inherent evidence of their truth, and of their di- 
vine origin 5 nor has that great and Almighty 
Being who governs the moral as well as the natu- 
ral world, given them any testimony of his appro- 
bation. The Bible on the other hand, carries 
with it this evidence of its divine origin, that it is 
attended with the mighty power of God. When 
the despised Son of Mary hung upon the cross, 
who would have thought that the religion of 
which he was the Author was destined to cover 
the earth as the waters cover the sea ? Who 
would have thought, that contrary to all human 
probabilities, in opposition to all human power, 
and striking as it did a deadly blow to all the 
idolatry of self, it would have so triumphed over 
error, superstition and wickedness, changed the 
heart of man, the form of human society, and the 
religion of the world ? Look a moment at this 
wonderful fact. Here is a system, the leading 
principles of which are not discoverable by the 
lights of nature and reason, a system that is to be 
propagated not by force, but by conviction, be- 
coming the living religion of all the nations of the 
earth. At thc^ (expiration oC forfij dnifs after the 
death of its founder, it numbered one hundred and 



322 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

twenty followers 5 immediately after, three thou- 
sand 5 and soon after, five thousand more. In the 
progress of a single century, it extended itself, 
over Syria and Lybia, Egypt and Arabia, Persia 
and Mesopotamia, pervaded Asia Minor, Arminia 
and Parthia, and even large portions of Europe. 
Unfolding as it did God in human nature, declar- 
ing as it did the substitution of the innocent for 
the guilty, insisting as it did upon a radical trans- 
formation of the human heart, — principles which 
are to the Jew a stumbling block, and to the 
Greek foolishness — it entered upon the conquest 
of the world. The learning of Athens, the wealth 
of Corinth, the pride of Rome bowed before it. 
It waved its standard amid the refinements of 
civilization and triumphed over the degradations 
of barbarism. No climate arrests its progress; no 
form of human society can exclude it. Every- 
where its effects are the same ; the same its illumi- 
nations of the understanding, its convictions of 
the conscience, its renovation of the heart ; its 
holiness, its hopes, its joys, its prospects the same. 
It is natural to ask, whence this success ? Never 
was a change wrought in the character of man by 
means so simple, so unostentatious, so utterly at 
war with all the pride and egotism of the human 
heart. We see no power proportioned to the 
effect. What was it ? It cannot be difficult to 
see what it was. God was with it. The secret 
of its success is found in the attendant power of 
its Author. No natural causes can account for 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 323 

such a phenomenon as the wide extension and the 
hallowed effects of the Bible. It is a phenomenon 
altogether unique in its kind, and produced only 
by the instrumentality of truth under the broad 
seal of heaven. Nor have its triumphs ceased. 
These commendations and honours are not flowers 
thrown upon its tomb. The moral efficacy of the 
Scriptures is demonstration that they are " living 
oracles," and that the word of God is " quick and 
powerful" beyond all other power. Men are con- 
scious of the spiritual excellence it reveals and 
imparts. When we can look round upon this 
magnificent and beautiful creation, and doubt 
whether it is the work of the divine hand, then too 
we may look at the effects of the Bible, and doubt 
whether they discover the work of the divine 
mind. And this they will discover more and 
more. The evidence is accumulative, and accu- 
mulating every hour. It is unlimited, but by the 
boundaries of the earth 5 it is prospective, and 
shall never terminate, but with the end of time. 
Not only has the gospel made rapid progress in 
our world, but it shall make still more wonderful 
progress. The Spirit of God has but begun to 
descend. The chief part of his work and reward 
is yet in expectation. These Scriptures go forth, 
not only uruhr the sanction, but under the ()ro- 
mised, assured, effectual, and still more abundant 
blessing of their Author in time to come. Ife has 
said, " As the rain cometh down and the fuow 
from heaven, and returneth not (hither, but water- 



324 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

eth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud^ 
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the 
eater ; so shall my word be that goeth forth out 
of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, 
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and 
prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." With 
the Bible in their hands and the Spirit of God 
among their people, the ministers of salvation 
"shall go out with joy, and be led forth with 
peace. The mountains and the hills shall break 
forth before them into singing, and all the trees of 
the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the 
thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the 
briar shall come up the myrtle-tree ; and it shall 
be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign 
that shall not be cut off." With this influence, 
the wilderness shall be turned into a paradise, and 
Lebanon into Carmel. The Bible will march 
onward in defiance of all the indifference of a 
world that lieth in wickedness, of all the arts of 
philosophy, and all the virulence of relentless per- 
secution. While other religions, devised by hu- 
man wisdom, and propagated by the secular arm, 
shall be seen to possess no self-perpetuating 
power, and pass away, and leave no memorial 
behind them ; the religion of the Bible shall live, 
and be diffused, and find its triumphs in the moral 
purity and happiness of " a great multitude which 
no man can number." Myriads, by this gracious 
influence, will yet be delivered from the power of 
darkness and translated into the kino^dom of God's 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 325 

dear Son ; and myriads more will yet rise up '^ an 
exceeding great army," from the valley where 
there were " bones very many and very dry," and 
where breath came upon them from the four 
winds. Go and stand in the midst of some of 
those numberless scenes of wonder and of mercy, 
of sovereignty and of omnipotence, where the 
Spirit of God has moved the assemblies of his peo- 
ple 5 where hundreds have trembled as on the 
verge of wo 5 and where, after the storm was past, 
the voice of mercy has whispered divine peace, 
and awoke their everlasting song; and you may 
appreciate, in some small degree, the love and 
power of the Holy Spirit. If you look forward to 
what this celestial Comforter will yet accomplish, 
when the great mass of human minds shall be sub- 
jected to his gracious influence ; when so many 
hearts shall be purified, and so many lives renewed 5 
when every land shall be redeemed from its cor- 
ruption and bondage, and the world assume a cha- 
racter which shall be the counterpart to the great 
truths which this divine agent impresses on the 
soul J with overwhelming gratitude may you recog- 
nize the pre-eminence of his great work. We an- 
tici[)ate with confidence the ultimate triumphs of 
the Bible because there is no inconstancy of purpose, 
no weakness, no despondency in the mind of the 
Spirit. The work of the iidorabic Saviour was 
finished, wheti he 1)ow(m1 his head and sunk upon 
the cross; while the ever-blesssed Spirit has but 
just entered on his wonder-working careiT. It is 



326 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

reserved for him to gather his laurels from the 
sheaves of the coming harvest, and find his reward 
in the purity and blessedness of a regenerated 
world. 

Permit me also to remind you, my young friends, 
that the same divine influence which is the hope 
of the world is also your hope — your only hope — 
your great and only incentive and encouragement 
in the divine life. Thus Paul considered it, when 
he said, " When I am weak, then am I strong." 
Tbus a pious female of the last century considered 
it, vv^hen uttering the emotions of all the effectually 
called, she exclaimed, " Though I am perfect weak- 
ness, I have omnipotence to lean upon." Thus 
the ever-blessed Spirit himself considered it, when 
he left the injunction, " Work out your salvation 
with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh 
in you to will and to do of his good pleasure." I 
know not why men should stumble at the thresh- 
old of their inquiries, over their dependance on the 
Spirit of God ; as though this discouraged, rather 
than encouraged them 5 as though it shut the 
doors of heaven, rather than kept them open ; as 
though it retarded and bewildered them in their 
progress, rather than led them onward ; as though, 
because " without Christ they can do nothing," 
they cannot do all things " through Christ strength 
ening them." I know not why it is not your privi 
lege and mine to make the same practical use of 
our dependance on the Spirit of grace that was 
made by patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and mar 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 2*21 

tyrs. And sure I am, the use they made of it was, 
not to relax the bonds of obHgation, encourage in- 
difference, and sanction sloth and procrastination; 
but to impart strength in weakness, hope in de- 
spondency, courage in depresssion, darkness, and 
difficulty, and induce them to " take hold of God's 
strength and be at peace." Man in his best es- 
tate is weak and fallible. Of the choicest human 
endowments, we may say, " This treasure we have 
in earthern vessels.'' Your strength is made per- 
fect by conscious weakness. If the Spirit of God 
help not your infirmities, you are truly weak. But 
confident of his support, *•' with a thousand perils 
in your eye," you may say, " None of these things 
move me ; neither count I my life dear to myself, 
so that I might finish my course with joy." Not a 
little of the darkness and despondency which per- 
plex men in the present world, is to be attributed 
to the low views they entertain of the divine pow- 
er and goodness. Just views of these attributes 
would always dispel the cloud. " The things which 
are impossible with men are possible with God." 
Whatever reasons men have to distrust them- 
selves, they have none to distrust him. 

1 will not close this lecture without adding 
another thought. How obvious, in view of the 
principles which have been suggested, is the privi- 
lege and duty of prayer. " If ye, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your Father which is in heaven, 
give his Holy Spirit to them that iisk him." I 



328 DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

know of no other way of procuring these divine 
influences than to solicit them. "Ask, and ye 
shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find 5 knock, and 
it shall be opened unto you." A man who feels 
that his heart is wholly inclined to evil, " deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked," yea, " en- 
mity against God," cannot live without prayer, and 
indulge any hope that he will ever become a con- 
verted man. He will find his conscience more 
and more obdurate, his heart more and more forti- 
fied against the claims of the Bible, and hardened 
in sin 5 while the spirit and maxims of the world, 
and the subtle and ceaseless power of him who 
" goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he 
may devour," rivet the chains of sin and death. 
The Christian who would resist the strength of his 
natural corruptions, and surmount the hindrances 
which beset his path to heaven, and who would 
not sink in utter despondency before the responsi- 
bility and perils of his high calling, must daily aspire 
after that divine aid which makes his progress 
certain and his triumph sure. The minister of the 
gospel who would be raised above discouragement 
in view of his own insufficiency and the greatness 
of his work, may, if he have the faith and prayer to 
ally his own weakness with the energy of the Holy 
Spirit, persevere in his labours, not only with undis- 
couraged cheerfulness and resolution, but comfort- 
ed hopes. The church that " sows in tears may 
reap in joy." The spirit of prayer will give her 
confidence and hope. Whom she cannot aw aken. 



DIVINE INFLUENCE. 329 

and convince, and convert, God can rouse from 
their apathy, open their hearts to understand his 
word, and at a time, and in a way that shall make 
his own power and grace the most conspicuous. 
Prayer makes the doubting hope, the feeble strong. 
It gives humility and confidence in God. It 
makes every effort for the salvation of men spirit- 
ual and holy. ''Prayer moves the hand that 
moves the world." Who would be insensible to the 
value of prayer ? : 

28* \ 



LECTURE XII. 



THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE WORLD TO THE BIBLE 
FOR THE SABBATH. 



Every reflecting man must, one would suppose, 
contemplate with grateful admiration, the great 
wisdom of the divine Author of the Scriptures in 
the institution of the Sabbath. I know of nothing 
like this observance in any other system of religion 
except that revealed in the Bible, unless it be some 
feint traditions of it in some pagan lands of remote 
antiquity. It is a weekly observance 5 fixed and 
permanent 5 hebdomedal from its original institu- 
tion, and to the end of time. Some of the ancient 
pagan nations had something in the form of an 
hebdomedal observance. Hesiod, the celebrated 
Greek poet of Boeotia, who lived about nine hun- 
dred years before the coming of Christ, says, '' the 
seventh day is holy." Homer, who flourished about 
the same period, and Callimachus, also a Greek 



THE SABBATH. 331 

poet, who flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Euer- 
getes, about seven hundred years later, speak of 
the seventh day as holy. Lucian also, a Greek 
writer, born at Samosata, who flourished about four 
hundred years after Calhmachus, says, " The sev- 
enth day is given to the schoolboys as an holyday." 
Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, says, 
" No city of Greeks, or barbarians can be found 
which does not acknowledge a seventh day's rest 
from labour." In the earlier ages of Greece, the 
years were numbered by the return of seed time 
and harvest, and the several seasons of labour and 
rest ; and the day divided, not into hours, but into 
morning, noon, and evening. The months of the 
Greeks were divided into decads^ or three periods 
of ten days each ; and I do not find any mention 
of a division of time into weeks among that people. 
There was no Sabbath among the ancient Ro- 
mans. Their year was originally divided by Ro- 
mulus into ten months; and afterwards, by Numa, 
into twelve. Their months, like those of the Greeks, 
were divided into three parts, kalends, nones, and 
ides. The custom of dividing time into weeks did 
not obtain until the reign of the emperor Scvcrus.* 
Both the Greeks and Romans had their days of 
cessation from labour, but they were not hebdom- 
edal. They were also religious observances ; that 



* Potter's Antiquities of Greece, and Adams' Roman Anti. 
quities. 



332 THE SABBATH. 

is, they were devoted to the honour of their pagan 
gods. They were days on which their altars 
smoked with sacrifices ; days of festivity ; days 
on which their public games were celebrated, and 
on which their temples, groves, and sacred fields 
were stained with blood and resounded with bac- 
chanalian madness. When heathen poets and his- 
torians therefore speak of holy days, they mean 
days of mirth and wickedness. Such are the days 
of rest throughout all Mahomedan countries. A late 
correspondent in one of our religious periodicals, de- 
scribes a Sabbath in Constantinople as a day of 
universal sport and diversion.^ Modern mission- 
aries, if I mistake not, uniformly testify, that there 
is no Sabbath in pagan lands. I have conversed 
with gentlemen of high intellectual and Christian 
character who have resided years in China and 
India, who have informed me, that they could never 
see any signs of a sabbatical observance in those 
vast countries. Nor have I been able to find any 
traces of a Sabbath among our own aborigines. 
The remark therefore, needs no qualification that 
the Sabbath, as its design and duties are disclosed 
in the Scriptures, is one of the strong pecuHarities 
of a supernatural revelation. It was given to the 
great progenitor of our race while he was in a state 
unfallen innocence ; it was the first command, 
taking the precedence in point of time even to the 



* Cheever's Letters to the New-York Observer. 



THE SABBATH. 333 

prohibition of the tree of knowledge 5 it rests on 
the essential relation of a creature to his glorious 
Creator. During the whole progress of the patri- 
archal age, you find traces of its observance. The 
manner in which its observance was revived and 
re-established before the commencement of the 
Mosaical economy and before the Israelites came 
to Mount Sinai, proves that it was an institution 
previously recognized, and had never been entirely 
lost. The authority and dignity given to it in the 
moral law affords decisive proof of its perpetual ob- 
ligation. The allusions to it in the Psalms and in 
the Prophets, as well as its strict observance under 
the New Testament, show that it was destined to 
form a part of the gospel dispensation. The 
Saviour and his apostles honoured it, by honouring 
the ten commandments as of perpetual force and 
obligation ; by respecting its sanctity in their own 
deportment, and by recognizing its continuance at 
a period when all obligation to a merely Jewish 
institution would long have ceased. Nor was any 
thing abrogated under the Christian dispensation 
with respect to the Sabbath, except those tempo- 
rary and figurative enactments which constituted 
the peculiarities of Jewish age, and changed the 
Jewish Sabbath into the " Lord's Day."* The 
Sabbath therefore is one of the great peculiarities 



* See these positions illustrated and (lefendetl in an able treatise 
on the Authority and IVrpetiial Ohlijjjation of the Sabbuth, 
by Daniel Wilson, now liishoj) of Culcuttn, 



334 THE SABBATH. 

of a supernatural revelation. And not only is it 
one of its strong peculiarities, but an institution for 
the existence and influence of which the world is 
under untold obligations to its great Author. 

We may advert to this institution in the first in- I 
stance, simply as a day of rest. One principal de- 
sign of it was to give both man and beast one 
day's respite from labour out of every seven. It 
deserves our special notice, that the letter and 
spirit of the divine command require both man and 
beast to abstain from all servile occupations on this 
day. Kest constitutes one of the essential parts 
of this observance. In the language of the Scrip- 
ture, to '' profane the Sabbath" is the same thing 
as to labour upon the Sabbath, while to sanctify 
the Sabbath signifies to rest from labour. The 
Jews wxre so scrupulous in this particular, that 
they would not even take up arms in self-defence 
on this day ; so that when Antiochus Ephiphanes 
and Pompey availed themselves of this conscien- 
tious tenderness, and attacked them on the Sabbath 
day, they became the victims of their fury without 
opposition. It was designed to be a day of respite 
from anxiety and toil 5 a day of refreshment both 
to the mind and the body 5 and though not required 
to be a day of feasting, was specially forbidden to 
be a day of fasting and sadness 

And is there not wonderful wisdom and benig- 
nity in such an arrangement ? Man was not made 
for constant and unrelieved employment. He was 
not formed for seven days toil, but for six. No 



THE SABBATH. 335 

doubt it seems to many persons, that the mere fact 
of resting one day in seven can exert very httle 
influence on the condition of our own race. To 
men who never labour^ it is not strange that this 
thought should sometimes occur. To the mass of 
pagan lands, whose life is one of dreaming indo- 
lence and sloth, the periodical recurrence of such 
a rest would not make much difference in their 
condition. But to a man whose mental energy is 
in a state of perpetual excitement 5 to a laborious, 
working community 5 such a rest is like the soft 
slumbers of midnight when it covers with its gentle 
folds an agitated and trembling mind, and a body 
overpowered with toil. The command to rest^ it 
will be recollected, stands not alone. " Six days 
shalt thou labour." It is in the combined and 
contrasted influence of such an arrangement only, 
that the Sabbath finds its appropriate place. 
There is nothing healthful that is still and stag- 
nant *, and there is nothing cheerful and placid 
where there is no cessation from the exhausting 
toil of this busy and care-worn world. God has 
given laws to this organic frame which cannot be 
violated with impunity. Man can no more labour 
a series of years without the Sabbath, than ho can 
labour a series of days without nocturnal repose. 
The measure of weekly rest is as wisely deter- 
mined by the Author of our physical constitution, 
as is the measure of our diurnal rest. When in 
defiance of the laws of nature and heaven, France 
abolislied the Sabbath, and rested one day in ten, 



Il 



336 THE SABBATH. 

instead of one in seven, the experiment proved that 
the amount ot^ productive labour was diminished 
by the change. It has been well ascertained that 
the proceeds of labour would, in any considerable 
period of time, be greater from six days in the 
week, than from the whole seven. '• If there were 
two contiguous nations, the one of which observed 
a day of rest, and the other laboured every day inl 
the year, and if in industry and the number of la- 
bourers they were equal, there can be httle doubt 
that the profits of the former would be considerably 
greater than those of the latter." Facts might be 
greatly multiplied to show that the repose of the 
Sabbath is indispensable to the most healthful and 
vigorous exercise of the physical powers. In no- 
thing has the Creator more obviously accommo- 
dated his government to the physical constitution 
of man, than in prescribing this weekly rest. 
Just as a beast of burden breaks down premature- ■ 
ly, that is worked every day in the year, will the 
powers of human life prematurely run down, if the 
toil of the week is not succeeded by the repose of 
the Sabbath. In an inquiry made a few years 
since before a committee of the British House of 
Commons in relation to the influences of the Sab- 
bath, an eminent physician, who had practised be- 
tween thirty and forty years, testified, that ^ men 
of every class who are occupied six days in the 1 
week, would in the course of life be gainers by ah- 1 
staining from labour on the seventh." The Sab- 
bath has been emphatically called •• the working 



THE SABBATH. 337 

man's friend." Who can doubt, that one motive 
which influenced its great Author to institute it 
was compassion to the poor ? A manufacturing, 
an agricuhural, or even a commercial community, 
deprived of the Sabbath, could not Hve out half 
its days. One reason why princes, ministers of 
state, and seamen do not live so long as other men, 
is, that they have no weekly day of rest. A few 
short years of vigorous, excited exertion, without 
the weekly intervention of this repose, and both 
body and mind lose their nerve and sinew. And 
there is nothing to refresh their languor and invig- 
orate their debility, but rest. The mind can no 
more bear to be over-worked, than the body. It 
becomes oppressed and burdened, and sinks in de- 
pression, and not unfrequently from its mere neg- 
lect of this day of rest, wanders in derangement. 
The truest economy of human life will be found 
in the provisions of that day of mercy, which, for 
the time being, shuts out the contrivance, care, per- 
plexity, and responsibility of business, and invites 
to calm repose. 

It may be seriously doubted whether this distinct 
design of the Sabbatical institution is sufliciently 
considered. It is a day of rest. No man has the 
warrant from heaven to make it a day of labour, 
except those who minister at the altar. " The 
priests under the law profane the Sabbath and are 
blamelesvS.'" No, the Sabbath is not appreciated as 
a day of rest. There was no day in Paradise to 
be compared with that "seventh day which God 
29 



338 



THE SABBATH. 



blessed and sanctified, because that in it he rested 
from all his work which he created and made.^ 
^Light was never more beautiful, nor sounds more 
melodious, than when Eden was first lighted by the 
dawn of this day of rest, and listened to the voice 
that blessed the first-born Sabbath. Nor was the 
benediction recalled after ungrateful man had dis- 
obeyed his Maker. Man was cursed, and made to 
toil in the sweat of his brow ; woman was cursed, 
and her sorrows multiplied 5 the ground was 
cursed, and doomed to thorns; but no curse 
alighted on this day of rest " The Sabbath was 
made for man." Amid the deep depression and 
tinmingled darkness of the fall, this day still re- 
mained, the unobscured, unequivocal pledge of 
some distant, though then unknown good. 

The Sabbath may also be regarded as pre-emi- 
nently the means of intellectual advancement. It 
is worthy of remark that the original law ordain- 
ing the Sabbath, contains no expHcit injunction 
that it be a day of religious observances, unless it 
be contained in the phraseology which requires 
that it be kept holy. Nor is there any injunction 
in relation to the religious exercises of the day in 
the Old Testament, except that a burnt offering 
of two lambs were on that day added to the morn- 
ing and evening sacrifices. Reason itself teaches 
us that if God has reserved one day in seven as a 
sacred rest^ that portions of it at least ought to be 
occupied in religious services. Hence we find, 
that under the old dispensation, God set ap^rt the 



THE SABBATH. 339^ 

entire tribe of Levi, one twelfth of the Hebrew;. 
nation, not merely to perform the rites and sacri-. 
fices which the ritual enjoined, but to diffuse over, 
the great mass of the people religious and moral 
instruction. In sketching the characters and for-, 
tunes of the different tribes, their great Lawgiver, 
says, "Of Levi, let thy Urim and thy Thummim, 
be with thy holy one; they have observed thy 
word and kept thy covenant 5 they shall teach Ja-j 
cob thy judgments, and Israel thy law." To them, 
was the custody of the sacred volume consigned^! 
with the ark of the covenant ; and they were re- 
quired to gather the people together periodically, 
^ men, women, and children, and the stranger 
within their gates, that they may hear, and learn, 
and fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all 
the words of his law." Hence, when Nehemiah 
assembled the Jews, after their return from the 
captivity, and restored their religious worship,, 
" Ezra the scribe brought the book of the law be-, 
fore the congregation, and read therein from morn- 
ing until mid-day. So they read in the book of 
the law distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused 
the people to understand the reading." They 
analysed the word of God, and expounded it at 
large, and showed its import and meaning. And 
the same usjigc prevailed under the New Testa- 
ment. The Saviour established an ord(^r of m(*n,| 
whose peculiar office and employment were to 
teach and instruct the people in the great truths ;uid 
duties of a supernatural revelation 5 to call up 



^0 



THE SABBATH. 



their attention 5 to give them just apprehensions of 
what God has revealed, and to enforce upon them 
the obligations of his gospel. If you turn to the 
New Testament, you will find that this service was 
performed, regularly and specially, on each return- 
ing Lord's-day. And this is one of the great pe- 
culiarities of revealed religion, and one of the dis- 
tinguished blessings of the Sabbath. Ministers of 
religion are indeed found in every community, 
pagan as well as Christian. Wherever idols are 
. worshipped, there are altars and priests ; there are 
soothsayers and diviners. But their duties are con- 
fined to the performance of religious ceremonies. 
They never attempt the religious and moral in- 
struction of the great mass of the people, and ne- 
ver desire it. But the Sabbath of the Scriptures 
is devoted to different ends. In the performance 
of its appropriate duties in Christian lands, every 
man becomes a learner, and derives his instructions 
from the best and most important sources. He 
hears the Holy Scriptures; he listens to the in- 
structions and counsels of wisdom from the house 
of God ; he occupies a place in the school of 
Christ, and becomes familiar with subjects that in- 
terest his mind, — that elicit thought and inquiry, 
and induce no small degree of mental discipline 
and capacity for intellectual effort. Ignorance and 
barbarism form no part of the character of men 
who revere the Lord's-day. You cannot consign 
to intellectual obscurity, a community that is sub 
jected to the illuminations of the Sabbath. Carr^ 



THE SABBATH. 341 

the privileges of this day to the most barbarous 
people on the globe, and just in the proportion in 
which they are subjected to its influence, are they 
elevated from intellectual degradation. It would 
probably strike us with surprise to be informed 
how large a portion of men exists, whose only op- 
portunity of information is derived from the Sab^ 
bath. If there is an exception to be made from 
the general spirit of this remark, it is in favour of 
the daily press 'y and for this reason do I look 
upon those who conduct it, as sharing with the 
pulpit no common responsibility. I would say 
more upon the importance of the Sabbath in this 
particular, should I not appear unduly to magnify 
mine office. If a minister of the gospel is labo- 
riously devoted to his own intellectual and moral 
culture, the Sabbath, constituting as it does one 
seventh part of human life, furnishes no contempti- 
ble opportunity for mental improvement. Its in- 
£5tructions are designed to affect the great mass 
of mankind, and address themselves equally to all 
orders and classes of men, not overlooking the ton- 
derest and most docile age ; for scarcely do child- 
ren come into existence in Christian lands, than 
they are encircled with the light of Sabbaths. 
There is something too, in the kind of instruction 
which the Sabbath communicates that has the 
happiest effect on the liuman mind. It relates to 
themes which call the soul away from the bustle 
of the world, to contemplate the wonderful works 
of God in creation, providence *nd redemption. 



342 THE SABBATH. 

It casts a veil over what is seen, and uncovers to 
the eye of the mind what is unseen. It throws 
back into oblivion the lying vanities of sense and 
time, and brings forward the permanent realities 
of eternity, every where disclosing facts, principles, 
and results which arrest the wandering intellect, 
and are fitted to expand and exalt it for ever. 
Many a sleeping genius, reposing within the cur- 
tains of its own unconscious powers, has been 
awakened to hope and action by the instructions 
of the sanctuary ; and many a germ of thought, 
which otherwise had wasted its fragrance on the 
air, has taken root and bloomed on this consecra- 
ted soil. It were a curious, but not unprofitable, 
inquiry to institute. How many well educated men 
in Christian lands, have received the first impulse 
and suggestion in their lofty career from the in- 
structions of the Sabbath ? Exclusive immersion 
in the perplexities and cupidity of secular voca- 
tions debases the intellectual character 5 and it is 
only by being conversant with objects more exalted, 
that the mind projects her noblest achievements. 
I am persuaded more is accomplished, directly or 
indirectly, by the various institutions of the Sab- 
bath, in enlightening the great mass of mind, than 
is accomplished in any other way, and that it is no 
undeserved commendation of it to say, that it is 
the day of light to this benighted world. 

The Sabbath also lies at the foundation of all 
sound, morality. Morality flows from principle. 
^ Out of the heart are the issues of life." Let the 



THE SABBATH. 343 

principles of moral obligation become relaxed, and 
the practise of morality will not long survive the 
overthrow. No man can preserve his own morals; 
no parent can preserve the morals of his children, 
without the impressions of religious obligation. If 
you can induce a community to doubt the genuine- 
ness and authenticity of the Scriptures 5 to ques- 
tion the reality and obligations of natural religion ; 
to hesitate in deciding whether there be any such 
thing as virtue, or vice — whether there be an eter- 
nal state of retribution beyond the grave — or whe- 
ther there exists any such being as God ; you have 
broken down the barriers of moral virtue, and 
hoisted the flood-gates of immorality and crime. 
I need not say, that when a people have once done 
this, they can no longer exist as a tranquil and hap- 
py people. Every bond that holds society together 
would be ruptured 5 fraud and treachery would 
take the place of confidence between man and 
man 5 the tribunals of justice would be scenes of 
bribery and injustice ; avarice, perjury, ambition and 
revenge would walk through the land, and render it 
more like the dwelling of savage beasts, than the 
tranquil abode of civilized and Christianized men. 
If there is an institution which opposes itself to 
this progress of human degeneracy, and throws a 
shield bfifore the interests of moral virtue in our 
thoughtless and wayward world, it is the Sabbath. 
In the fearful struggle between virtue and vice, 
notwithstanding the powerful auxiliaries which 
wickedness finds in the bosoms of men, and in the 



344 THE SABBATH, 

seductions and influence of popular example, 
wherever the Sabhath has been suffered to Hve, 
the trembling interests of moral virtue have always 
been revered and sustained. One of the principal 
occupations of this day is to illustrate and enforce 
the great principles of sound morality. Where 
this sacred rest is preserved inviolate, you behold 
a nation convened one day in seven for the pur- 
pose of acquainting themselves with the best 
moral principles and precepts. And it cannot be 
otherwise than that the authority of moral virtue, 
under such auspices, should be acknowledged and 
felt. We may not at once perceive the effects 
which this weekly observance produces. Like 
most moral causes, it operates slowly 5 but it ope- 
rates surely, and gradually weakens the power and 
breaks the yoke of proffligacy and sin. No villain 
regards the Sabbath. No vicious family regards 
the Sabbath. No immoral community regards the 
Sabbath. The holy rest of this ever-memorable 
day is a barrier which is always broken down, be- 
fore men become giants in sin. Blackstone, in his 
Commentaries on the laws of England, remarks, 
that " A corruption of morals usually follows a 
profanation of the Sabbath." It is an observation 
of Lord Chief Justice Hale, that ^ Of all the per- 
sons who were convicted of capital crimes while 
he was upon the bench, he found a few only who 
would not confess, on inquiry, that they began 
their career of wickedness by a neglect of the du- 
ties of the Sabbath, and vicious conduct on that 



THE SABBATH. 345 

day." The prisons in our own land could proba- 
bly tell us that they have scarcely a solitary tenant 
who had not broken over the restraints of the 
Sabbath before he was abandoned to crime. You 
may enact laws for the suppression of immorality ; 
but the secret and silent power of the Sabbath 
constitutes a stronger shield to the vital interests 
of the community, than any code of penal statutes 
that ever was enacted. The Sabbath is the key- 
stone of the Temple of Virtue, which, however 
defaced, will survive many a rude shock so long as 
this foundation remains firm. 

The Sabbath may also be regarded as a distin- 
guished means of national prosperity. The God 
of heaven has said, "Them that honour me I will 
honour." You will not often find a notorious Sab- 
bath-breaker a permanently prosperous man. A 
Sabbath-breaking community is never a prosperous, 
happy community. Such a man, such a commu- 
nity provokes the displeasure of God, and draws 
down his judgments. When the Athenians re- 
called their celebrated general Alcibiades from an 
important expedition, it was because the night be- 
fore his departure, he had cast public reproach and 
contempt on the gods of his country. "If thou 
turn away thy foot," said the God of the Hebrews, 
" if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from 
doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the 
Sabbath a dehght, the holy of the Lord, honoura- 
ble, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking 



346 THE SABBATH. 

thine own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself iii 
the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the 
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the 
heritage of Jacob thy father." Elsewhere he says, 
"If ye will diligently hearken unto nie, to bring in 
no burden through the gates of this city on the 
Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day to do no 
work therein; then shall there enter into the gates 
of this city kings and princes sitting upon the 
throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, 
they and their princes, the men of Judah and the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall remain 
for ever." There are a multitude of unobserved 
influences which the Sabbath exerts upon the tem- 
poral welfare of men. It promotes the spirit of 
good order and harmony ; it elevates the poor from 
want; it transforms squalid wretchedness 5 it im- 
parts self-respect and elevation of character ; it pro- 
motes softness and civility of manners ; it brings 
together the rich and the poor upon one common 
level in the house of prayer ; it purifies and strength- 
ens the social affections, and makes the family cir- 
cle tiie centre of allurement and the source of in- 
struction, comfort, and happiness. Like its own 
divine religion, it '' has the promise of the life that 
i\o\w is, and that which is to come." I see not how 
men can afford to dispense with the Sabbath, what- 
ever their condition in the world. It is said that 
a late distinguished statesman, when travelling over 
New England, and observing her every where 
scattered churches, and the order and decency of 



THE SABBATH, 34? 

her Sabbaths, remarked with emphasis, " I never 
beheld such a community before. This is the glory 
of New England." No statesman of enlarged and 
comprehensive views can deny the benevolent in- 
fluence of the Sabbath. When the influence of 
this sacred rest comes to be extended from shore 
to shore 5 when its temples crown every hill and 
are the ornament of every valley 5 when its hum- 
ble suppHcations, and hallowed songs are heard 
from ten thousand times ten thousand assemblies 
of worshippers 5 who can doubt that its weekly re- 
turn to this wide world will be entertained as " an- 
gel's visits," though neither " few," nor " far be- 
tween." Who can doubt that those divine judg- 
ments which so often complete the ruin of a peo- 
ple, would be mitigated and withdrawn ? There 
is a beautiful representation of this thought by a 
far-famed, though eccentric orator, which it is im- 
possible for me to give, except very imperfectly, 
because I do it only from memory. The city 
of London contains about a thousand churches* 
" When I approach the city of London," said the 
late John Randolph, " I sometimes feel that I am 
approaching a place devoted to destruction. The 
cry of its abominations goes up to heaven ; and I 
seem to see the tempest gathering over it. But 
then again, I look at her thousand spires that pene- 
trate the clouds, and see them conducting oflT its 
fury." 

There is another consideration of still weightier 
import, which I may not suppress. The Sabbath is tho 



848 THE SABBATH. 

great means of perpetuating the knowledge of 
the true religion. Few persons, if any, are uni- 
versal sceptics. All nations have some religious 
impressions, be they ever so erroneous. The Sab- 
bath was originally instituted by God in commem- 
oration of his own existence as the Creator of 
the world, anxl for the purpose of being a perpetual 
testimony against the worship of idols. It was 
subsequently instituted in commemoration of the 
deliverance of the nation of Israel out of Egyptian 
bondage, and as a token of their vocation as his 
chosen people. " Surely, my Sabbaths ye shall 
keep, for it is a sign between me and you, that you 
may know that I am the Lord who hath sanctified 
you." Subsequently the observance of it was en- 
forced as a commemoration of the resurrection of 
the Saviour. The Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the 
Christian Sabbath all unite in the same design, and 
are now all concentrated in the last named day. 
This daj^ commemorates the three great facts that 
distinguish the true religion from paganism, the 
church from the world, and the way of salvation by 
Jesus Christ, to the exclusion of every other way. 
The mere existence of this day is a public proof 
of these three facts. If these three facts, the cre- 
ation of the world — the calling of the Hebrew na- 
tion as God's peculiar people — and the resurrection 
of the Saviour can be established 5 the religion that 
is founded upon them must be of divine origin. 
Now the weekly observance of this day of rest 
transmits these facts through all the generations of 



THE SABBATH. 349 

men. It is a sign between God and man, recur- 
ring every week. Just as coins and pillars, and mon- 
uments, and the festal days which commemorate 
some remarkable epoch in a nation's history, are 
signs and proofs of the events they commemorate, 
so is the Sabbath a standing, public proof of these 
great facts. We should never have heard of the 
Sabbath but for the events which it commemorates. 
When we speak of it, we recur to the reasons of its 
original institution. When our children inquire 
why it is set apart, we tell them 5 and when their 
children make the same inquiry, they have the same 
answer ; and in that answer have an epitome of 
the evidence in favour of the only true religion 
Wherever this day of rest is duly observed there- 
fore, it is the great preservative against idolatry, 
polytheism, and all false religions. Wherever it is 
observed, there, and there only is to be found the 
knowledge of the one only living and true God, of 
the existence of his church on the earth, and of 
her salvation through the great Mediator. But for 
this testimony, we see not how the knowledge of 
the true religion would have been preserved in the 
earth. If you find a people strangers to the Sab- 
bath, you may be confident they are without God in 
the world. When France abolished the Sabbath, 
sh(^ declared tluu*e was no (jlod but reason, and no 
hereafter. You may wander at the present day 
over the far-famed cemetry of her metropolis, and 
read the mnnerous iiiscriptions u|>on tomb stones 
erected at that melaiieholy p(M iod, death is an 



350 THE SABBATH. 

ETERNAL SLEEP ! The Same result will follow, 
wherever the same experiment shall be made. The 
nation that disowns the Sabbath is necessarily a 
nation of infidels and atheists. Look where you 
will, either among individuals, families, or commu- 
nities, and if the Sabbath is a desolation, there you 
will find a gradual and certain decay from true re- 
ligion to infidelity and paganism. Let the Sabbath 
be forgotten for twenty years in this favoured land, 
and you will have no necessity of going to India, 
or the Southern Ocean to find paganism, for we 
ourselves should have become a nation of pagans. 
Blot out the Sabbath and no longer will the Bible 
lead men to repentance and salvation. No longer 
will the silver clarion of the gospel " proclaim lib- 
erty to the captives and the opening of the prison 
doors to them that are bound.'' No longer will 
the voice of supplication ascend from this ruined 
world to draw from heaven the blessings bestowed 
by the hearer of prayer. No longer will the Spirit 
of truth and grace dwell with men, to dissipate 
their darkness, and make the desert like Eden, and 
the wilderness like the garden of the Lord. No 
longer will ordinances quicken, or the soul be com- 
forted, or mercy be triumphant. Darkness will 
cover the earth and gross darkness the people. Sin 
will reign. Satan, the great enemy of God and 
man will lay waste this fair creation 5 will walk to 
and fro through the earth in all the phrenzy of his 
long-wished for usurpation, and death and hell will 
follow in his train. 



THE SABBATH. 351 

May we not then affirm the obligations of tho 
world to the Bible for its Sabbftth ? As a man of 
the world, I venerate the Sabbath. I would not 
be the agent in the destruction of this day of rest 
for all that earth can give. It would indeed have 
little to bestow, when all that is illuminating and 
pure, elevating and noble, serene and holy havo 
become thus exiled from among men. That man 
has lived too long, who has survived the extinction 
of the Sabbath. My young friends does not this 
day of light, and mercy, and hope, deserve respect '* 
Does it bear no stamp of divinity? The Great 
Lord of the Sabbath bids you rest on that sacred 
day. On that sacred day he bids " reason which, 
amid the bustle of the week, has been jostled from 
her throne, resume her sway. He calls con- 
science from the retirement into which she had 
been driven by the spirit of gain, or the strife of 
party." And he awakes all the tenderness of the 
heart, touches its sympathies, and opens it to tho 
sweet influences of his love. Never does the 
world of nature more delightfully co-operate with 
the world of grace than on this sacred day. Never 
does the dew fall in sweeter silence, nor the va- 
pours ascend more softly. Never does the king- 
dom of providence smile more significantly thau 
on the observance, or frown more fearfully than 
on the violations of this day of rest. No man is 
the looser by keeping this day holy. O it is enougli 
to sicken on(As heart to survey the immoraliliesi 
that are engendered by the neglect and abuse of 



352 THE SABBATH. 

this day ! Among the causes which diminish the 
appropriate influence of the Sabbath in this land, 
are the rapid growth of our large cities, the influx 
of a foreign population from catholic countries, 
the limited extension of the Christian ministry, 
the cupidity of monied and business corporations, 
the example of the rich, the influence of the govern- 
ment, the want of parental authority, the thought- 
lessness of young men, and the desecration of the 
day by many of the professed people of God. 
And yet as a nation, I cannot feel that we are a 
community of Sabbath-breakers. With the single 
and melancholy exception of the Post Oflice de- 
partment, the public departments of business are 
all closed on this sacred day. The custom house, 
the banks, the insurance offices, the public offices 
at the seat of government, the courts of justice, 
the mercantile houses, the shops of business and 
labour are closed one day in seven. And w^ell 
may we feel that this is an unspeakable blessing. 
It would be an insupportable grief and burden, 
were it otherwise. And yet is the sin of Sabbath- 
breaking becoming more and more apparent, in 
the land. Notwithstanding the strong barriers 
erected to protect this sacred observance, there is 
reason to fear, that the irresistible flood of business 
and pleasure will roll over this great institution. 
On the behalf of this holy day therefore, I solicit 
your example and your influence, wherever you 
may be, and as long as you shall live. It is en- 
titled to your reverence and love. You have 



THE SABBATH. 353 

nothing you can substitute in its place. Despise 
its guidance, reject its consolations, refuse its 
hopes, extinguish its light, and you are buried in 
cheerless gloom. If you would that those who 
come after you should rise up and call you bless- 
ed 5 if you would embalm your names in the 
grateful remembrance of coming generations 5 
continue the exemplary and fearless guardians of 
the Christian Sabbath, and transmit its blessings 
to distant futurity. On you devolves the sacred 
charge of extending and perpetuating the unap- 
preciated blessings of this holy day. Should older 
men become demorahzed ; should grave Senators 
trample on this institution of heaven's wisdom and 
mercy ^* there is a redeeming spirit in the young. 
I repeat the thought, let it be one of the great 
principles of your conduct, wherever and whatever 
you may be, to uphold the authority and plead 
the cause of this holy institution. Let no change 
of condition, or place, or pressure of business 
tempt you to profane the Sabbath. No one ex- 
ternal observance will exert so powerful an in- 
fluence on your moral character as a scrupulous 
and cheerful r(»gard to the Lord''s Day. Y'ou 
cannot become abandoned, while you revere the 
Sabbath. You cannot become useless members 
of society, so long as you regard the Sabbaih. 
You cannot put yourselves beyond the reacii of 
hope and heaven, so long as you treasure up this 
one connnand, " Remember the Sabbath day to 
keep it holy." 

30« 



LECTURE XIII. 



THE IXFLrEXCE OF THE BIBLE OX HL'MA:** 
HAPPLNESS. 



The Bible possesses an unmeasured pre-emi- 
nence in the influence it exerts in promoting hu- 
man happiness. If the world is indebted to a su- 
pernatural revelation for its language and its let- 
ters 5 for its history and its literature , for its laws 
and its liberties 5 for its social institutions and the 
mitigation of its more pubhc calamities; for its 
morality and religious knowledge ; for a religion 
that satisfies the conscience, renovates the heart, 
and fits the soul for heaven ; for a standard of ex- 
cellence and loftiness of character, to which it 
otherwise must have been a stranger ; for the 
divine power which accompanies its truths, as well 
as for the benign and hallowed influences of its 
day of rest ; then has the great Book of which 
we have spoken, conferred unspeakably greater 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 355 

benefits on the world, than any other — nay, than 
all other books. But I do not purpose to illustrate 
the leading thought of the present lecture, by re- 
capitulating the substance of that which has, 
already, I fear, been too greatly extended. 

Some of the ancients, indeed, endeavoured to 
form the mind to virtue, but it was a virtue based 
on interest, or a vain love of approbation. The 
''honestum," or "to xofAoj/" of the Greek and Ro- 
man philosophers is defined by Aristotle to be that 
which is praiseworthy 5 and by Plato that which 
is pleasant, or profitable. Their virtue had no 
broader foundation than the hopes and desires of 
the present life. Some of them appeared to have 
a wish to benefit their fellow men, and to be in 
earnest in their researches after the truth. To 
such minds, what a relief would the perusal of this 
Book have afforded, while it clearly disclosed that 
for which they had so long been seeking, and 
enabled them to exchange the distant glimpses 
they had obtained, for the full light revealed in 
lines that could leave no doubt of their heavenly 
origin ! How would they, had they been taught 
of God, thrown their poor speculations to the 
winds, and recognized the virtue for which they 
had so anxiously sighed, in the divine precepts! 
But it was not granted them. They lived in error 
and darkness, for th(i day-spring from on higli had 
not yet arisen u|)()n their land. 

Sinful emotions are the source of disquietude, 
dissatisfaction, remorse, and misery. Envy and 



35^ HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

unkindness, suspicion and jealousy, lawless appe- 
tites, malignant and stormy passions, infuriated 
rage, reciprocated treachery, mutual crimination 
and bitterness, — what so much as these distract the 
heart and dry up its joys ? There is nothing that 
can make such a mind happy. Perturbed and un- 
allowed affections form no inconsiderable part of 
the misery of that world, where the worm does not 
die, and the fire is not quenched. Angels could 
not be happy in heaven, when their bosoms became 
such a " troubled sea" as this. Our first parents 
must be doomed to a life of toil, to a world of 
thorny care and the grave, when they yielded to 
such a spirit. Ahab, on the throne of Israel, " re- 
fuses to eat bread," because he could not possess 
himself of the vineyard of Naboth. Haman, in 
nigh favour at the court of Persia, makes himself 
miserable because, "Mordecai the Jew, sat at 
the king's gate." Who can feel himself at 
peace when such passions reign in the soul 5 and 
where is the bosom in which they may not be 
found, unless it has been purified by the power of 
the gospel ? Wealth, pleasure, and fame, are the 
three idols of this world, and the love of these the 
predominant passions of the heart. And yet 
they are the most contentious, mischievous, debas- 
ing passions, and the most prolific source of indi- 
vidual, social, and pubhc calamity. Vanity and os- 
tentation without, are very apt to be the index of 
poverty and wretchedness within. The rich, the 
voluptuous, the ambitious, the great, are not the 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 357 

men who are happy. Marcus Crassus antedating 
his fall by grasping at the wealth of Parthia, Tibe- 
rius concealing his cruelly and lust amid the re- 
treats of Caproea, and Alexander on the throne of 
the world, w eeping because there was not another 
world to conquer, are melancholy proofs, that amid 
joys Uke these, and in the highest gratification of 
the' unhallowed passions which this world can fur- 
nish, men not only never can be happy, but may 
and must be miserable. 

There is nothing that allays and cures this fe- 
brile action of human depravity like the influence 
of the Bible. Let any one compare the present 
state of human society, notwithstanding all its im- 
perfections, with its true character only a few cen- 
turies past, and he cannot fail to see how many 
exciting causes of human misery it has subdued 5 
how many a heart it has kept from acting out, and 
giving unrestrained license to its irritated selfish- 
ness 5 how often it has held the fierce passions of 
men in check, and extinguished the flame which 
otherwise would have burned with indomitable 
phrenzy. Aflbctions that are bland and virtuous, 
are uniformly the source of tranquillity and joy. 
They are like " rivers of water in a dry place." 
They are living fountains within, springing up to 
purify and refresh the mind. The Bible alone tells 
us in what true happiness consists, and how it may 
bo attained. It is not without reason that it ad- 
monishes us of the danger of mvro, earthly coin- 
fortsj because the very desire after them is ordina- 



358 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

rily so intense as to become the source of inward 
corruption, and in their enjoyment we forget our 
highest good. I have been not a Httle interested 
in the fact, that the Saviour, at the commencement 
of his public ministry, and in the first paragraph 
of his first discourse, should have so entirely coun- 
tervailed the commonly received notions of men, 
in regard to the sources of true happiness. He 
who formed the human mind, is acquainted w ith 
its large desires, and is familiar with every avenue 
to its joys, has said, " Blessed are the poor in 
spirit 5 blessed are they that mourn ; blessed are 
the meek ; blessed are they which do hunger and 
thirst after righteousness 5 blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God." What a rebuke to 
the spirit of this world ! What a contrast to the 
rest'ess solicitude of grasping covetousness 5 to the 
dissipation of the gay ; to the resentment of the 
implacable 5 to the degradation of the impure; 
and to those senseless joys of ambition, when some 
new liame ignites its hopes to quench them in 
darkness ! The Bible distinctly teaches us, that 
he is the happiest man, who possesses most of its 
peculiar spirit and character. Not because he has 
the most wealth, for he may be poor, and, like his 
Divine Master, " have not where to lay his head." 
Not because he " seeks honour from men," but be- 
cause he seeks "that which cometh from God 
only." Not because he is a voluptuary, but a 
Christian. Not because he has the greatest capa- 
city, but because he possesses an internal spirit, a 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 359 

state of mind and heart which prepare him to ap- 
preciate, and qualify him to enjoy, all that is worth 
enjoying, and to a degree that is impossible to a 
mind less pure. "To the upright, there ariseth 
light in the midst of darkness." In the gloomiest 
wilderness, he has a guide that accompanies and 
cheers him with encouragement. No danger can 
appal him, no sorrow crush, no doubt depress him. 
Darkness becomes day, the bitterest flower yields 
him honey, seeming evil turns to certain good. 
He utters no complaint, because he knows his lot 
is so much better than he deserves ; he yields not 
to fear, for he is well assured that by a thousand 
contrasts and combinations, "all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God." Others 
he sees travelling a gayer road, faring sumptuous- 
ly, arrayed in rich apparel ; but he does not re- 
pine, does not envy them. He is content that his 
path should be through the desert, and over the 
rough places, so that he has peace and joy within. 
One of the unfailing sources of happiness, for 
which we are indebted to the Scriptures, is the 
spirit and character which it requires and im- 
parts. 

Man is formed for activity. Excrlion is the true 
element of a well regulated mind. If undisturbed 
by the; implements of husbandry, the soil becoines 
hard and im|)enetrable. Its bosom is not o|)en to 
the dew, or rain, or to the vivifying influence of 
the sun. The scattercMl seed finds no root, but is 
driven by ev(Ty wiiul that blows over the surface. 



360 HTMAN HAPPINESS. 

No verdure is seen to greet the eye, or tree bear- 
ing fruit to cheer the careless husbandman ] but 
weeds, rank and dangerous to man, spring up 
from the soil that was destined for his support and 
comfort. So it is with the mind of man, when 
locked up and deprived of healthful exertion he 
lives for himself alone, and only the most sordid 
passions spring up within his bosom. Benevolence 
has no room in a soul so narrow 5 compassion and 
sympathy are stifled, and all the nobler faculties lan- 
guish. Almost the only relief from unmingled mise- 
ry in the indulgence of some of the evil propensities 
of our nature, is found in the fact that they pro- 
duce excitement and incite to exertion. That 
God who brings good out of evil, has so ordered 
it that in giving rise to action and effort, even 
these propensities produce no small amount of 
good, though aiming at a very different end. 
Avarice and love of wealth set commerce in mo- 
tion, provide labour and sustenance for the poor, 
bring the ends of the earth near to each other, 
and spread abroad civilization and Christianity. 
The heathen of the isles and of this continent 
might still have been unknown, still deprived of 
the blessings of the gospel, had not the ambitious 
spirit of adventure quickened the ingenuity and 
winged the sails of the navigator. The love of 
fame may be the only motive that inspires the 
tongue of the orator and the pen of the writer 5 
but God gives them a destiny different from what 
they proposed to themselves. Their names may 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 361 

be lost amid the rushing whirlpool of time ; but 
their words and their works may break the chains 
of nations, carry intelligence over the face of the 
earth, and their influence felt throughout eternity. 
Mankind, in this respect may be not unaptly com- 
pared to the Alchymists of old, who spent their 
lives in laborious search after the fabled philoso- 
pher's stone. Their unwearied industry failed of 
success, for it was directed toward an object that 
was unattainable 5 yet, though misapplied, it was 
not, as subsequent events have shown, without its 
sources of happiness to themselves, and benefit to 
the world. 

If then action in itself considered, is a source of 
happiness and a benefit to mankind, how much 
more when it is founded on intelligent and benevo- 
lent principles? Few sources of pleasure equal 
those which arise from benevolent exertion. When 
intelligent and benevolent principles stimulate it 
to action, then it is that the soul is enlarged and 
elevated, and the bosom opened to every kindly in- 
fluence. Benevolence and well doing become 
their own reward, and inducements to future 
efforts. The seed sown in such a soil brings forth 
fruit an hundred fold ; and a rich harvest in the 
happiness of others adds to the already abundant 
store of our own. But whence are intelligent and 
benevolent [)rinciples of action to be derivid ? 
Does nature dictate them ? Have they been dis- 
covercMl by reason ? Are they found amid the 
researches of [>hilos()phy ? Are tin^ gathered 



362 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

from observation ? Spring they up even from 
dear bought experience ? What is more obvious, 
than that the world needs a supernatural revela- 
tion, if for nothing else than to discover the true 
aim and end of man's existence ? It is a remark 
of Cicero, that " those who do not agree in stating 
what is the chief end, or good, must of course dif- 
fer in the whole system of precepts for the con- 
duct of human life." And yet this writer informs 
us, that on this subject "there was so great a dis- 
sension among the philosophers, that it was almost 
impossible to enumerate their different senti- 
ments." And hence it is that the men of pagan 
lands so rarely even professed to put forth their 
exertions for a benevolent end, and knew so little 
of the happiness arising from such an exalted 
source. Great exertions from great motives con- 
stitute the glory and blessedness of our nature. 
And no where do we learn what great exertions 
and great motives are, but from the Bible. The 
wisdom to guide, and the aliment to sustain them, 
are derived only from that great source of instruc- 
tion and duty. Where on all the pages of pagan 
and infidel philosophy do we read such an injunc- 
tion as this, — "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, 
do all to the glory of God." Whence, but from 
that sacred Book do we learn the maxim, so fami- 
liar to every Christian mind, " None of us hveth 
to himself, and none of us dieth to himself 5 but 
whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and 
whether w^e die, we die unto the Lord !" He, 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 363 

and he alone, is the happy man, who has been 
taught to consider the nature and tendency of his 
conduct, and whether it will approve itself to God, 
and advance the designs of his truth and love in 
the world ) who makes his will the rule, and his 
glory the end 5 and whose governing aim and 
study are to please him, and show forth his praise. 
Such a man is happy, because he lives to do good. 
His daily employment is his daily joy. His '' meat 
is to do the will of him that sent him, and finish: 
his work. He may be as great a sufferer as Paul, 
and yet as happy as he. He cannot be miserable, 
so long as he acts from the principle of communi- 
cative goodness. No matter where his particular 
sphere of occupation, he is happy. His aim is 
high, and he has an object which sustains, and an 
impulse which encourages him. His anticipations 
are joyous, his reflections tranquil. He looks 
backward with pleasure, and forward with hope. 
He has the joy of an approving conscience. He 
has not buried his talent, nor is he a cumberer 
of the ground. He lives to bless the world. And: 
when he dies, he bequeaths to it his counsels, his 
example, his bounty and his prayers. Another, 
source of enjoyment for which we arc indebted to. 
the Bible therefore, is the habit of benevolent exer- 
tion. 

It is in vain to turn our eyes from the sad spec- 
tacle of human mis( ry. We cannot persuade our- 
selves that it does not exist, nor arm ourselves with 
a stoical insensiblility to evils which are every 



364 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

where around us, and which we ourselves feel. If 
you open your eyes upon the annals of time, you 
see an unbroken series of existencies who appear 
for a few days, or hours, on this scene of action, and 
then pass away. The cradle is suffused with their 
tears, and, in a little while, the places that so lately 
knew them, are hung around with the emblems of 
their dissolution. And between the cradle and the 
grave, what mournful scenes fill up the drama of 
human life ! What hours of sadness and gloom ! 
What painful diseases, what disheartening discou- 
ragements, what disappointments and losses; what 
defeated hopes and withered honours; what de- 
pression and melancholy ; what malignity of ene- 
mies and fickleness of friends; what unkindness, 
darkness, and fear; what individual and domestic 
calamity, and public distress; what consternation 
and dismay; all heightened and aggravated by 
the distressing doubt and uncertainty as to what 
shall be on the morrow ! Trials like these befall 
us at every step through life. No hour can we be 
free from the fear that what we value most on 
earth may be snatched from us. In this respect, 
man seems subjected to a severer sentence than the 
rest of the natural world, and the curse of death 
falls with a heavier w^eight upon him. The trees 
and plants grow up to their full height, fill up the 
measure of their years, and then decay and fall. 
Flowers bloom through their passing life, and 
then wither and die according to the laws of their 
nature. Birds and beasts live, for the most part, 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 365 

until age creeps upon them, and, unless they are 
destroyed by the hand of man, are rarely cut off 
by disease. The brute creation have no thought, 
no fear of evil. Their life is not embittered by 
the expectation that they must die; they have no 
knowledge beyond the present and the past 5 their 
hopes and their fears gather nothing from their ex- 
perience which may reveal to them the morrow ; 
but they live in contented ignorance and apathy, 
and at death sink into the deep, never-ending night 
of annihilation. 

But it is not so with man. Man perishes from 
the cradle to the grave ; and " suffers a thousand 
deaths in fearing one." He alone is aware of the 
dangers that threaten him, and tliey are every 
where about his path. " Man dieth and wasteth 
away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is 
he ?" Who has not sympathized with the Per- 
sian poet, when he said, 

"1 passed tlic burying-place, and wept sorely, 

To think how many of my friends were in the mansions of the 

dead. 
And in an agony of grief, I cried out, Where are they ? 
And Echo gave the answer, and said, W/tere are Uiey /" 

How often do we grieve over the destruction of 
our fondest hopes? Wlieri heart is bound up in 
heart, how oft is the tie rent sudch'uly asunder, the 
sweetest fellowships severed, and the joys of the 
liappiest life vc^iled by the gloom of the i^rave. 
Life and death seem to walk hand in hand 3 and 
31* 



366 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

even while we are rejoicing in the presence of the 
one, comes his stern companion and casts a Wight 
upon our prospects. Amid those very scenes 
where we have witnessed the joyful career of one 
we love, we are called to behold him pine in sick- 
ness and suffer in death. The hand which has 
performed for us so many acts of kindness, is now 
reached out to us for aid that we cannot give; and 
the voice whose tones were such music to the ear, 
can now scarcely be heard, or heard only in sounds 
of distress. All which formerly made the delight 
our hearts, now makes up their anguish. And if 
in hope of soothing their dying pillow, we sum- 
mon strength, and stand by to receive the last 
sigh, to return the last weak pressure of the hand, 
to watch the advance of death as he steals from the 
cold Umbs and brow to the heart, and freezes 
there the feeble current of life, and then gaze upon 
the lifeless form for another breath, another mo- 
tion, which, alas! we shall not hear, nor see; we 
feel, for the moment, as though this grief, this 
overwhelming sorrow, could not be supported. 
When, too, after the first hour of anguish is past, 
and we return to that cold clay to put it in order 
for the tomb, to look still again upon its changed 
lineaments, and to feel that it was but yesterday 
and there was a bloom upon this cheek, a lustre in 
this eye, a voice upon these lips; we are mourners 
afresh — we are silent — the sad picture is all before 
us! 

Seal up this sacred volume, and I see not whence 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 36? 

the light dawns to cheer this sombre picture. But 
for the Bible, man would be placed in a grade of 
happiness far below the brutes that perish. Better 
be any thing than rational, without the religion of 
the Bible. The Scriptures inform me that these 
evils have a cause. They all come from the hand 
of God. " I make peace, I create evil, I the Lord 
do all these things." Chance and fate have no 
place in the government of " the God only wise." 
Sorrow is designed 'y nor is the design malignant, 
or unkind. The unseen hand that inflicts these 
trials is as benevolent as it is wise, and the Being 
who dispenses them is as far above all other be- 
ings in goodness, as he is in power. We learn 
from the Bible too, that they have a moral cause 5 
that they are the rebuke of the Holy One for our 
iniquity ; that they are the discipline of a heavenly 
parent, and designed to bring back his wayward 
children to their forsaken God. And when rebel- 
lious man sees and feels this truth, his soul is sub- 
dued to submission, to tranquillity, to peace, and 
under the heaviest calamity he looks upward and 
says, " It is the Lord, let him do what secmeth him 
good !" And this of itself* is the source of abound- 
ing consolations. How often in our intercourse 
with mankind do we cheerfully submit to present 
pain and evil, when counselled to it by those in 
whose wisdom and benevolence we have confi- 
dence. Extend this principle, so often and so 
beautiftiUy illustrated in tluMVord of God, to all the 
tjvils of the present life, and we have that feeling of 



368 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

quiet, trusting confidence which supports the be- 
liever under all the evils which an all-wise Father 
is pleased to lay upon him. It is a principle pro- 
lific in consolations to the mourner , and well may 
be the confidence and joy of the world and of the 
universe. '^ The Lord reigneth, let the earth re- 
joice ; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof." 
And what shall we say of the hopes and pros- 
pects by which the Bible cheers the hearts of the 
bereaved ? What rather may we not say ? Is it 
blind conjecture which the Scriptures reveal re- 
specting the state of departed man ? Is there no 
life to come ? no great resurrection ? no comforter 
to arrest the current of " mourning, lamentation 
and wo," after the dust we love has been deposited 
in the tomb ? When reminded keenly of our loss 
we exclaim, Shall we not meet again 1 Is this 
parting forever ? — is there nothing in the Bible 
that can answer the agonizing inquiry ? When 
we wander as it were along the borders of that 
Yast ocean which has swallowed up our living 
treasures 5 when we sit down there, and weep and 
call upon the waves of eternity to give up their 
dead 5 when from the shore of time, we look and 
listen over the vast abyss of waters, does no sound 
reach us ? To the ear of faith there is a voice. 
We listen, and our grief is allayed. " For if we 
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 
They do but " sleep." They '' sleep in Jesus." 
Death dissolves not their union with him. Yes, 



nU^IAN HAPPINESS. 369 

our grief is allayed, and we journey on through 
life consoled. No longer now do our thoughts 
wander to that mound of earth where their re- 
mains have been deposited. We look upward be- 
yond this sphere. A happy meeting, a reunion for 
eternity hovers before us like a star, illumines our 
path, and leads us forward in joyful hope. 

No where does the Bible look with cold indiffer- 
ence on human misery. So adapted is it to human 
sorrows, that its precious counsels and promises 
are scarcely intelligible, and never appreciated, ex- 
cept by those who are " chosen in the furnace of 
affliction." Go up with me to that chamber of 
sorrow. It is not the dwelling of a pagan. It is 
not the couch of some deluded disciple of Maho- 
mot. Nor y<pt is it thp abode of a mere nominal 
Christian. " This I know by experience," said she, 
" the days of case and worldly prosperity are sel- 
dom to Christians their belter days. So far from 
it, that to the praise and glory of God's holy name 
would I speak it, I have substantial reason to call 
these my better days — these days and nights of 
pain — these days of almost absolute confinement 
and solitude are not only my better, but my best 
days 5 because the Saviour condescends to be more 
present with me in theni ; to manifest himself to 
me as he does not unto the world ; to stand by my 
bed of affliction, and speak kindly to my heart."* 



• Life of Mrs. Hawkos, 



370 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

O, how dark are the shadows which human reason 
and vain philosophy cast upon such scenes as 
these ! There is no such rehef from sorrow as is 
found in the Bible. 

I have spoken of the consolations furnished by 
the Bible in trial and in view of the death of 
others. But we must penetrate yet deeper sor- 
rows than these. There is an hour when ite our- 
sehes )nust die. If we find death an evil when 
we mark its advances upon those around us, what 
will it be when he comes up into our own cham- 
bers ? Who can trifle with this monster then ? 
When he invades our own pillow, which of us will 
not recoil from his approach, and shrink from the 
ravages of this king of terrors ? •• The sting of 
death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." 
Death is an hour which never fails to bring with 
it the consciousness of guilt, and a sense of the 
righteousness of that pure and holy law which men 
have violated, and by which they are condemned. 
]Vor is there any thing to quiet the apprehensions 
and soothe the alarm excited in the breasts of those 
who know not God, at the approach of this dread 
destroyer. Men who never drank hito the spirit 
of the Bible, feel then that every thing on which 
they built their hopes, is about to be swept away, 
and that, •• in that very day,*^ their thoughts, their 
treasures, their grandeur, their honours, their little 
world, all perish. They have lived at a distance 
from that God who now draws near in his displea- 
eurcj and tremble at the thought of appearing be- 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 371 

fore him who is so holy that he cannot look on sin. 
No knowledge of the Redeemer's person and 
work comforts them 5 no welcome impressions of 
his saving mercy are left upon the soul, and it de- 
parts in doubt and darkness, if not in despair. So 
full of darkness were the views of Socrates^ one 
of the wisest and best of the heathens, that just 
before he took the fatal hemlock, he said, "■ I am 
going out of the world and you are to continue in 
it 5 but which of us has the better part, is a secret 
to every one but God." Volumes might be writ- 
ten depicting the scenes of anguish and horror 
which have been exhibited at the death-bed of 
those who have rejected the Bible. What multi- 
titudes of dying men, burdened with the load of 
unpardoned sin, and tormented by the accusations 
of a guilty conscience, have exclaimed with one 
with whose closing history many of you are fami- 
liar, " O, that I might come to that place of torment, 
that I may be sure to feel the worst, and to be 
freed from the fear of worse to come !" 

Not so the dying Christian. To him death has 
no sting*, over him the grave boasts no victory; 
nor has the second death any power. " lie knows 
whom he has believed.'" His "life is hid with 
Christ in God." He has unshaken confidcMicc 
that every thing is safe in the hands of Jesus 
Christ. Often hav(i T seen him at that momentous 
hour, and heard him as his quivering hps com- 
mended his spirit to " him who loved iiim, .uui 
washed him in his own blood." Time would fail 



372 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

me to tell of Ignatius, of Polycarp, of Augustine, 
of Hilary, of John Huss, of Jerome of Prague, 
of Luther, of Melancthon, of Beza, of Patrick 
Hamilton, of George Wishart, of John Knox, of 
Tindal, of Bradford, of Cranmer, of Bunyan, of 
Bacon, of Robert Bruce, of Samuel Rutherford, 
of Claud, of Harvey, of Ralph Erskine, of Locke, 
of Baxter, of Matthew Henry, of Whitefield, of 
Edwards, of Brainerd, Dwight, Halyburton, Pay- 
son, Evarts, and a host of men of whom the 
world was not worthy, all of whom " died in faith," 
and sung the songs of salvation as they bid adieu 
to their earthly pilgrimage. The history of the 
church is filled with testimonials to the worth 
and blessedness of the Bible which have flowed 
from lips, which though pallid in death, have glowed 
with praise. What but this Book of God enables 
the child of faith, " when flesh and heart fail," to 
say, " Thou wilt show me the path of life ; in thy 
presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand 
there are pleasures for ever more ?" What but 
this prompts him to sing, '^ I am now ready to be 
offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that day, 
and not to me only, but to all them that love his 
appearing ?' What but this Book of grace and 
consolations, when death's icy hand chills his frame, 
and the grave unfolds its darkness and sohtude, in- 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 373 

spires the triumph, " O death, where is thy sting ? 
O grave, where is thy victory ?" Not more dis- 
tant are our thoughts from the thoughts of God, 
or earth from heaven, than are all the consolations 
of reason and philosophy from the consolations of 
the Bible to a dying man. 

There is one more topic which gives emphasis 
to the thought which I am endeavouring to illus- 
trate, which I wish it were in my power to present 
in its native force and richness. The source and 
fulness of created good is the knowledge and 

ENJOYMENT OF GoD. 

" Give what thou wilt, without thee, we are poor, 
And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away." 

The mind of man is like a ship which the storm 
has dragged from her moorings and driven out to 
sea. It is tossed upon unknown waves, and has 
neither peace nor safety until it can renew its 
communication with the shore. No sooner did it 
apostatize from God, than it was torn from its pro 
per element, and separated from its proper object. 
Without the knowledge of God, mankind are like 
children deprived of a father, driven along, the 
sport of accident, with no hope for the future, and 
no security that their present ha|)piness would en- 
dure, or their |)resent misery end. Darkness 
would overshadow their path from th(» cradle to 
the grave. Admit, for the sake of tiic illustration, 
that our race wctc deprived at once of all know- 
ledge of God, where would be those hopes which 
3:> 



374 HUMAN HAPPINESS. 

support man in the gloomy hours of adversity, 
where that gratitude and love that lend such a zest 
to his hours of joy ! What sadness would reign 
over the world ! what unalleviated despair ! Or, 
if we might extend this melancholy picture, if the 
imagination might carry us beyond this earth to a 
universe ignorant of its Maker, O, what a chasm 
to strike the Infinite One out of existence ! Then 
should we see in their once happy spheres, the an- 
gels sitting apart and weeping that they had no 
God ; or behold them flying through infinite space, 
winging their way through the mazes of the whirl- 
ing planets, and seeking some token of the Father 
they had lost, and, as they met, saying to one ano- 
ther, Is it so ? Have we no God — no Father ? 
No, we have no God ! And with boundless grief 
and despair they would wing their way farther and 
farther through the universe. Then would every 
harp be unstrung, every song silent, and the de- 
spairing words, we hate no God — no Father — a 
blind chance rules — be all that would break the 
awful silence of heaven. In one dismal region 
these sounds might, perhaps, bring some joy. 
Fiends might triumph — might laugh and exclaim. 
Heard ye there is no God — there is no Heaven ? 
This universe is now one boundless place of 
torment ! Then let it be supposed that to this de- 
spairing world the news should be brought that 
God still ruled. Let the note peal as from a trum 
pet through the universe, ''He lives, he reigns;'' — 
and what transport would fill the earth and the 



HTMAN HAPPINESS. 375 

heavens ! Then would the child of sorrow lift his 
head from the dust to his Father who is in heaven. 
Angels would string again their harps, and re-echo 
the tidings, — " He Uves, he reigns God over all, 
blessed for ever !" — The triumph of fiends would 
be turned into shame, and hell resume her ancient 
gloom and despair. 

We are not competent to appreciate the effect, 
were the knowledge of God blotted out of the 
universe. There was a moment when the only 
created mind fully capable of comprehending the 
fearful thought, seemed to feel it as an insupporta- 
ble reality. And who can tell the feelings of that 
mighty mind at that awful moment, when God hid 
his face from him, and the suffering Son looked 
up in vain, and exclaimed, " My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me !" Nearly such would 
be the condition of this world without the Bible. 
The Bible alone points the exile to his native 
land. It conducts the wandering, thirsty traveller 
to the very fountain of life. It leads the long-lost 
spirit back to God. 

But beside the support and hope which the 
knowledge of God procures, unspeakably greater 
is the pleasure we derive from loving him. What 
greater blessing has heaven bestowed upon the 
human race than pure and amiable afi'ections? 
Of all m(;n he is the most miserable who has no- 
thing to love. His h(^art is cold, and his bosom 
like the desolate heath. Nor is there any thing 
that can revive and refresh his withered mind 



376 HUMAW HAPPINESS. 

until he has found an object on which to bestow 
his affections. No small portion of our happiness 
in this world arises from the love we feel toward 
those who are dear to us. We may indeed 
have affections that are not virtuous; but the 
pleasures we derive from them do not deserve 
the name. We may love what is unworthy, in- 
constant, and changeful: and then our expectations 
are defeated. We may love what is transient 
and dying; and then our joys are turned into 
grief. And yet, with all its ficldeness and uncer- 
tainty, earth furnishes no such happiness as where 
heart yearns toward its fellow heart. In so far 
as theu- characters are faulty, the pleasure of 
our love it is true is in proportion diminished ; 
and yet with all their blemishes, the loss of their 
affections could not be easily repaired. But sup- 
pose those we love are exalted beyond their fellow 
men, endowed with an amiable and generous 
mind, gifted with a strength of intellect and pur- 
pose that are softened by benevolence and con- 
descension, and over all these qualities a winning 
manner throws its attractive charms; what delight 
do we experience in affectionate intercourse with 
them. We feel as it were almost raised to their 
level, and enjoy a pride and gratification that we 
are esteemed worthy of their love. And this 
thought elevates us indeed, and keeps us above 
the level of the common world. And how^ careful 
are we to do nothing to forfeit their confidence, 
and what grief and self-reproach do we feel if we 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 377 

have forfeited it ; for conscience tells us that the 
folly, the error is all our own. What then must 
be the happiness of fixing the heart on God^ 
where there is nothing unlovely, nothing fickle, 
nothing false or dying ! From our best affections 
toward creatures up to tJie love of God, there is 
a height as lofty as his ways and attributes are 
above the attributes and ways of mortals. No fear 
can haunt the mind, that he may change in his 
character, or in his love. He is above the reach 
of accident, or mutation, perfect in benevolence 
and power, and to those who trust in him is a 
sure and perpetually increasing source of joy. 
Men no longer grasp at shadows, when thev fix 
their hearts on God. They think of him, and are 
happy; they contemplate his nature, and tlieir 
best affections and purest happiness become more 
exalted and more pure, the greater their love. 
Solicitude subsides into tranquillity, peace is in 
vigoratcd to confidence, love awakes to joy, and 
not unfrequently joy to transport, at a view of the 
divine excellence and glory. And then to roreive 
love for love*, to lean on the bosom of d»vine 
faithfulness ; to make the Eternal God our refuge 
and portion — this is the blessedness for which the 
spiritual nature of man is formed. This is that 
great law of moral attraction by which the soul 
enjoys even a sort of sympathy with the diviiu na- 
ture and |)arti(;i|)ates in his blessedness. 

The world has no substitute for such a source 
of joy. You may be happy my young friends, with- 
32* 



378 HTM AN HAPPINESS. 

out power, without influence, without learning, 
without wealth ; but you cannot be happy without 
God. Give man all of this world that he desires; 
multiply around him the gratifications of sense and 
the pleasures of thought ; and if he have not God 
for his refuge and joy, the day is not far distant 
when he will feel that he is like the prodigal in a 
far country, feeding upon husks and clothing him- 
self with rags. Nothing can make you miserable 
so long as you enjoy the presence of God. To 
feel every where surrounded with Deity ; to see 
him every where, and every where enjoy him — 
this is the blessedness which the Bible is capable 
of imparting. Nothing separates such a mind " from 
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord." 
This " green earth" may be parched up, and aU its 
sources of pleasure dried away ; but such a mind 
ranges more delectable mountains, and quenches 
the ardour of its desires at fountains of hvincr wa- 
ter. " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; he 
leadeth me beside the still waters ; he restoreth my 
soul.'' 

Such is the influence of this holy book on hu- 
man happiness. No matter where, or on whom 
its blessings descend, its legitimate influence is to 
make men happy. Wherever it finds him on this 
vast sea of trouble, however far from land, how- 
ever shattered by the storm, it fills the torn sails 
of the tempest-tost, and wafts him to the shore. 
Nay, it calms the tempest. The voice of the waves 



HUMAN HAPPINESS. 379 

is hushed by its power, and the heaving ocean is 
stilled into a peaceful haven. 

" Chose admirable," exclaims the great Montes- 
quieu, "la religion Chrfetienne, qui ne semble avoir 
d'objet que la felicite de Pautre vie, fait encore 
notre bonheur dans celle-ci." Higher authority 
has said, " Godliness is profitable for all things ; 
having the promise of the life that now is, and that 
which is to come." There are few errors more to 
be regretted than that the religion of the Bible is 
not adapted to promote human happiness. Its very 
sacrifices have more than an adequate compensa- 
tion. If it commands us to give up self, it is only 
for the love of God 5 if it teaches us to give up 
time, it gives us eternity in return ; and in doing 
this. It does not even diminish our happiness in time. 
It is a reproach to Christianity that its disciples are 
not more uniformly cheerful and happy. The re- 
ligion of the Bible is not a cheerless religion. Un- 
happy Christians there are, but unhappy religion 
there is none. God grant, my young friends, that 
you may possess an humble piety, a self-denying, 
laborious piety, a piety that lives above the world 
and walks with God, but at the same time, a cheer- 
ful, happy piety. 



LECTURE XIV. 



CONCLUSION. 



We have been considering in the preceding lec- 
tures, some of the particulars in which the world 
is under obhgations to the Bible. I would cheer- 
fully extend this discussion, did I not believe that 
a more protracted illustration would be an unsea- 
sonable demand upon the patience of mj audience. 
It was my design to have detained you by the con- 
sideration of one other topic, and to have shown 
the obligations of men to the Bible for a religion 
that satisfies the conscience when it is roused to 
that great inquiry, '' How shall man be just with 
God '?" But as this topic has more than once been 
incidentally alluded to, and to some extent illus- 
trated, I pass this evening to the concluding lec- 
ture. 

The design of this exercise is to request you, 
without any particular recapitulation on my part, 



CONCLUSION. 381 

to review the ground we have gone over, and in 
this review, to institute the following inquiries : 

Is NOT THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE UNIVERSAL- 
LY ADAPTED TO THE CHARACTER AND CONDITION 

OF OUR RACE ? Whatever may be the varieties of 
his locality and condition, every individual of the 
human family is, by nature, ignorant, depraved, 
subject to infirmities and sorrows, destined to the 
grave, and the heir of immortality. The religion 
which he needs, and which alone is adapted to all 
the varieties of his species, and all the peculiari- 
ties of his condition, is one that meets the exi- 
gencies of his condition for both worlds. It is one 
which, while it appreciates the importance of the 
life which is to come, does not depreciate the true 
interests of the life that now is. It is one which, 
while it does not overlook his intellectual worth, 
and his social and public relations; his freedom, 
his dignity, his happiness, his usefulness, as a citi- 
zen of this world ; provides mainly for his moral 
purity, and the glory and immortality that await 
him at the termination of his earthly career. It 
is one which consults the claims, not of one class 
of human society merely, but of all classes; not 
of one period of time merely, but of all periods ; 
not of one clime merely, but of all climes ; not of 
one form of government merely, but of all forms 
of government ; not of one locality, or a limited 
circle, but of all localities, and the most enlarged 
circle ; not of one particular nation, or people, but 
of all nations, languages, and men, under the faco 



382 CONCLUSION. 

of the whole heaven. We do not ask for a reli- 
gion that is fitted for the arctic, and yet has no 
fitness for the antarctic circle ; a religion that is 
adapted to the language and manners of the east, 
and yet has no adaptation to those of the west ; 
but one that has in it nothing local, nothing restric- 
tive, whose principles are applicable every where, 
and whose institutions may every where be prac- 
tised. We are mainly thankful for a religion that 
consults our interests for eternity ; while, at the 
same time we need one that consults our true and 
permanent interests for time. We need one, too, 
that consults all the peculiarities and variety of hu- 
man condition ; one that is fitted to satisfy all the 
faculties of the soul; one which, instead of re- 
tarding, advances the progress of the human mind, 
satisfies the conscience, encourages the imagina- 
tion, and enobles all the natural and moral affec- 
tions. Every faculty of the soul, as well as every 
individual of the race, is diseased and infirm, and 
needs some catholicon, some universal remedy, 
some specific that can operate on every malady, 
and that proves itself worthy of confidence by its 
actual and well attested results. 

Have we not seen that such a religion is found 
in the Bible, and only there ? Just in proportion 
to the degree of practical influence which the 
Bible has exerted on the more limited or more en- 
larged circles of human society, on the intellectual, 
political, and moral condition of men, on their in- 
quiries and motives, on their principles and con- 



CONCLUSION. 383 

duct, and on their enjoyments and expectations, 
may we discover its universal adaptation to the 
great family of man. No where are its effects 
confined to time, or place, or age, or sex, or con- 
dition. No climate, no degree of intellectual cul- 
ture, no form of government, however despotic or 
however free, is above, beneath, or beyond its 
power. No physical or moral constitution has 
proved a barrier to its access. The civiHzed Eu- 
ropean, and the savage Hottentot, have alike found 
its " yoke easy and its burden light." Every where 
and at all times, it has found minds to whom its 
regeneration was necessary and its Redeemer pre- 
cious. Its followers are found in the camp and in 
the forum, among the rich and the poor, among 
the learned and ignorant. It has found its way to 
the shop of the artisan, the prison of criminals, 
the tribunals of justice, and the thrones of kings.* 
It is a religion that is never insipid and dull, never 
grows old, or vanishes away. It is a religion that 
is never behind the spirit of the age, but always in 
advance of it, leading it onward, and inscribing on 
all its improvements, " Holiness to the Lord." 
Other things may change 5 but the religion of the 
Bible never changes. What it was in the day of 
Christ and his aj)ostles, it is now, and always will 
be. It has nothing |)liablc and temporizing in its 
principles, and yet is it alike adapted to all. Every 



*For the illustrations on this pago, and for some of the 
phraseology, the author is indehtod to a discourse of A. Vinct. 
Professor of Theology, in Lausanne. 

\ 



384 CONCLUSION. 

where its effects are the same. These things can 
be affirmed of no other religion, and of no system 
of philosophy. Other religions have been insti- 
tuted, and flourished, and died, because they were 
adapted to the times and the spirit of the age. 
Neither paganism nor Mahomedanism can ever be- 
come the religion of the world. Nor can the reli- 
gion of Zoroaster, destined as it is, to Hve only 
under its own native skies, and that, no longer than 
the gospel has an opportunity of superseding it. 
The Bible alone can ever become the religion of 
the world, because this alone corresponds to the 
universal exigencies of men, to the constantly re- 
curring wants of humanity independent of acci- 
dental circumstances, and irrespective of place and 
time. Some of my most admiring views of the 
Bible arise from contemplating its wonderful 
adaptation to all times and places, and to every 
variety of character which this fallen world pre- 
sents. The enlightened and the ignorant, the lofty 
as well as the abject, the meanest as well as the 
most splendid forms of human sin and misery, the 
living and the dying, ignorance, wickedness, sor- 
rows and helplessness, which no other counsels of 
love and tenderness can reach, are all accessible 
to its transforming influence and precious consola- 
tions, and while convinced, rebuked and humbled 
by its censures, are comforted by its hopes. 

But there is another inquiry : — is not the re- 
ligion OF THE BIBLE A BENEVOLENT RELIGION ? Is 

not the world, in every view, the better and the 



CONCLUSIOX. 

happier for this wonderful book ? Has it not ex- 
erted a favourable influence upon the learning, the 
laws, the liberties, the social institutions, the mo- 
rality, the holiness, the happiness of mankind ? 
Have any forms of government, any political sys- 
tems, any theories of social order, any refinements 
of human philosophy accomplished for men what 
the Bible has accomplished ? Wherever you trace 
its circulation, you see blessings every where ac- 
companying its progress. Nothing has contributed 
so largely to the temporal comfort of mankind. It 
has scattered the darkness of intellect ; it has given 
security to life, liberty and property ; it has im- 
parted mildness and efficacy to law; it has elevated 
woman from the degradation of a slave ; it has set 
in motion a thousand systems of sacred charity to 
bless the poor, the diseased, the widow, the or- 
phan, the blind and the dumb. It has strength- 
ened the weak and confirmed the strong; it has 
convinced the thoughtless, reclaimed the wander- 
ing, comforted the mourner, and directed the eye 
of untold millions to an " exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." Wherever it has come, it has 
been a stream of health and salvation. It pro- 
fesses a benevolent design ; it has openly pledged 
itself to become a blessing to the world ; and it has 
been redeeming tliis pledge and accomplishing this 
design, ever since it was first published to men. 
Though the experiment has not been so full and 
thorough as it will have been h(T<^after, it has been 
sufficiently full to evince its triumphs. Had it 



38$ CONCLUSION. 

failed, how many myriads of tongues would have 
proclaimed its defeat ! Every one who looks into 
the Bible can see that its great object is to make 
men good, useful and happy. Such is the obvious 
design and tendency of its precepts, its prohibitions, 
its doctrines and principles, its institutions and pri- 
vileges, its punishments and rewards. Whatever 
is pure, honest, true, lovely, and of good report, it 
encourages and requires^ while all that is impure, 
dishonest, false, unlovely and uncommendable, it 
discourages and forbids. All that can assimilate a 
creature of yesterday to his Maker, and prepare 
him for the family and fellowship of angels, it re- 
quires 5 while all that renders him deformed and 
odious, that severs the bonds of moral union and 
fits him to become the companion of foul and mise- 
rable spirits, and an eternal outcast, it forbids. It 
encourages no vice, no sinful passions and propen- 
sities 5 while it discountenances and condemns 
every corrupt principle and every lurking source 
of evil. Wherever it has exerted its appropriate 
influence, it has imparted new affections, new 
hopes, new motives of conduct, and a new and 
happy character. It imparts views and affections 
which resemble those of the redeemed in heaven, 
and differ from them only in degree. They are 
the opening blossoms, the unripe fruit which will 
hereafter hang in all its richness and maturity 
on the Tree of life which is in the midst of the 
Paradise of God. By gradually diffiising its own 
spirit of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy 



CONCLUSION. 387 

Ghost, it has changed the face of the world, and 
uprooted those deep foundations of human society 
which were every where inlaid with injustice, op- 
pression and misery. It has renovated the charac- 
ter of individuals, families and nations 5 and in the 
same proportion in which its principles and spirit 
have prevailed, has banished sin and misery from 
the abodes of men. Its influence has not always 
been aUke uniform, because it has sometimes had 
more difficulties and opposition to encounter than 
at others ; nor has it always been alike visible, even 
where it has been real and felt, because its plans 
are comprehensive and it acts upon a large scale. 
But even where most obstructed, it has left sensi- 
ble traces of its benevolent design ; and where 
kast observed, it has often been preparing the way 
for its most extended conquests. 

May it not then be said, that the religion of the 
Bible is a benevolent religion? Who, that is a 
friend to man, is not the friend of the Bible ? 
What part of the earth that now enjoys them, can 
afford to dispense with the Scri|)tures ? What 
greater calamity could befall our world than to lose 
the last copy of this sacred Book ? What bene- 
volent man would extinguish such a light as this? 
Whoever was induced, from a sincere regard to 
the best interests of his fellow men, to subvert the 
foundation of so much [public tranquillity, and so 
many private virtues and hopes ? Who would 
bring back upon the world the ignorance and ser- 
vitude, the horror and crime of the dark ages ? 



388 CONCLUSION. 

Who would be the agent in inducing it to retrace 
its steps to the ignorance and superstitions of pa- 
ganism ; to the impure and sanguinary altars of 
Baal-Peor, Moloch, and Ashtaroth ] to the obscene 
groves of oriental idolatry; to the hero-gods of 
Egypt and Greece, and to all that shall foster the 
basest and most malignant passions of men 1 
Who would throw back the human intellect upon 
a state of scepticism and uncertainty as to the re- 
ality of a future and immortal existence, and the 
way of securing its blessedness by faith in the only 
Redeemer? Who would impart anew all their 
power to those exciting causes of human depravity 
which the Bible has subdued, or restrained ? Who 
w^ould dry up those living fountains of joy which 
it has opened ? Who would destroy or diminish 
its motives to well-doing, and wither its fruits of 
righteousness ? Who would refuse its consolations 
to the heart of the bereaved, and provoke afresh 
those tears of the mourner which it has wiped 
away? Who would tell the widow and the or- 
phan to go and visit the tombs of those they loved, 
and come trembling away, trembling on through 
life, trembling and uncertain to the grave, to learn 
all there, but not to bring back the secret ? O, 
where is the man that would thus consent to re- 
store to death the sting, and to the grave the vic- 
tory, which the Bible has taken away ? No cal- 
culations could measure, no numbers estimate the 
loss, were this Book to be blotted out of existence ; 
nor were it possible to appreciate it, except from 



CONCLUSION. 389 

the extended cry of misery and despair that would be 
consequent on excluding it from the world. Fiends, 
alone, and men like fiends, would toll its funeral 
knell, and crowd in joyful procession to its tomb ; 
while virtuous and holy minds, veiled in mourning, 
and bathed in tears, would turn away disconsolate, 
and bury their hopes in the same grave with the 
Bible. 

May we not also say, in view of the preceding 
lectures, that the Bible is a book pre-emi- 
nently DISTINGUISHED FOR ITS INTELLECTUAL 

SUPERIORITY ? With very few exceptions, I have 
carefully read this book every day for more than 
forty years, and I have never discovered in it a 
single mark of intellectual imbecility. Though 
portions of it were written during the periods of this 
world's infancy and darkness, and when contempo- 
raneous authors evinced nothing more than their 
ignorance and weakness *, though it treats of a vast 
variety of themes, difficult, complicated, and some 
of them mysterious ; yet does it every where 
evince a powerful and well-disciplined intelligence. 
In mere intellectual excellence, it has claims to 
superiority over every other and all other books. 

It is in every view an original work. It is im- 
possible for language to speak of it in this respect 
in ihc terms of conuncndation which it deserves. 
Its amazing thoughts and combinations of thought, 
discover wonderful originality of mind. Read, 
for example, the Ten Commanduients given from 
Mount Sinai by Monies: a code of lawis so wonder- 
33* 



390 CONCLUSION. 

fully comprehensive and perfect, that it cannot be 
improved upon by all the legislative wisdom of the 
world, either as it regards its influence upon hu- 
man opinions, affections, and conduct. And the 
(entire book exhibits throughout, the same origi- 
nality and simplicity of thought. While it aims 
not at originality for its own sake, yet '' it makes 
disclosures which have eclipsed and consigned to 
oblivion all prior discoveries." It does not disdain 
to dwell upon important truths that are old, and 
give them to the world again with '' all that origi- 
nal freshness and force which is the peculiar pre- 
rogative of genius,'' nor does it w ithhold disclosures 
that are peculiarly its own. Many of its instruc- 
tions are common-place to us, while to the most 
learned minds of Greece and Rome, they were 
^' new and strange things," and have added almost 
every thing that is original and valuable to our in- 
tellectual resources. Its subhmest truths and 
great peculiarities it places in a clear and strong 
light 5 and what is always the work of an original and 
powerful mind, makes them as level to the capaci- 
ties of the meanest, as of the highest intellect. 
To cursory readers, whose object is amusement, 
they afford comparatively little interest; but to 
those who wall consent to digest what they read, 
they will prove a perfectly original source of men- 
tal improvement. 

The Bible is also an inexhaustible book. The 
extent, number, variety and im.portance of the 
subjects of which it treats, the weight and perti* 



I 



CONCLUSION. 391 

nence of its instructions, as well as the illimitable 
extent of views it opens to the mind, give it a pre- 
eminence above all other books that ever were 
written. The more you gaze at its splendours, 
the more is your vision dazzled and overpowered 3 
and the more you investigate its truths, the more 
do its resources appear unwasted and unwasting. 
It has exhausted many a life, and many a capa- 
cious and vigorous mind, while itself remains un- 
exhausted. There are men who have studied this 
volume most thoroughly and intensely, and who, 
the more they have studied, have been the more 
charmed with its clearness and simplicity; and 
who, at the same time, have been at every step of 
their progress, more and more deeply convinced 
that it is a fathomless profound of light and know- 
ledge. There are those who have made it the 
chief object of their investigation for half a cen- 
tury ; who have studiously examined every para- 
graph it contains, some fifty or an hundred times 5 
and who, at every fresh perusal, have discovered 
new thoughts and new sources for admiration and 
joy. It has been read and studied a thousand fold 
more than any other book 5 libraries have been 
written upon it, and while, by every unwearied re- 
search, you s(Hi that new truths arc elicited, you at 
the same time h(»ar the most patient students of 
its pages confess, that the more dce|)ly they have 
been absorbed in their conteuiplations of it, tho 
deeper has been their conviction of its illimitablo 
resources. 



392 CONCLUSION. 

Mark also the intellect discoverable in the per- 
fect liartnony and unity of its object. It was not 
composed in a single age, but in the progress of 
sixteen hundred years, and during a period in 
which the views and opinions of men were in a 
state of great fluctuation. It was not written by 
one man, but a great variety of men — men in 
different classes of human society — men imbued 
w4th different prejudices — unlettered men, and 
men of science. They wrote, too, upon subjects 
on which men are specially prone to differ. Most 
of the writers also were entirely unknown to one 
another. And yet there is the same great out- 
line — there are the same principles, and the same 
great object and end. Every thing is so harmo- 
nious throughout the whole book, that, did you not 
know otherwise, but for the variation in style and 
circumstance, you might naturally suppose it came 
from the same pen. The instances of apparent 
disagreement among the different writers of the 
sacred volume, and of apparent contradiction in 
the same writers, are found on inquiry, to be no 
disagreement in reality, but rather a confirmation 
of their substantial harmony. There has been 
some governing and strong intelligence presiding 
over these successive narratives and instructions. 
One grand design, one undivided system of truth 
and duty, redemption and retribution, runs through 
the whole. 

But more than all, does the intellectual superi- 
ority of the Scriptures appear in the elevation and 



CONCLUSION. 393 

grandeur of tlie design itself. Let a man set 
down to the perusal of this book, from beginning 
to end, as he would study a tragedy, or epic poem, 
and he will discover traces of a plan which, in its 
commencement, progress, filling up, close and ca- 
tastrophe, exhibits powers of a most original and 
inventive genius. It carries you back into the 
ages of eternity, and developes its original purpose 
at a time when "there were no depths, and no 
fountains of water, and before ever the earth was." 
The theatre of this wonderful drama Ls this ex- 
tended and beautiful earth ; the great actors in it, 
the three glorious Persons in the ever-blessed God- 
head, angels and men; the spectators, all intelli- 
gent existencies 5 the time, from the primeval 
creation down to the period when time shall be 
lost in eternity ; the interests at stake, the well 
being of every son and daughter of Adam ; the 
events disclosed, the apostacy of angels and men 
— the predicted Seed of the woman waging war 
upon the kingdom of darkness — the special voca- 
tion of a people from whom the Messiah was to 
be descended — the fearful revolution of empires, 
and the rapid changes in human affairs with a 
view to his advent — his wonderful incarnation, and 
more wonderful character, God and man myste- 
riously united — his death and sacrifice on the 
cross as a satisfaction to divine justice for the sins 
of men — the descent of the Holy Spirit — the pro- 
gressive conflict between light and darkness, holi- 
ness and sin — the apparently doubtful issue — the 



394 CONCLUSION. 

ultimate triumph of the Mighty Redeemer — the 
resurrection from the dead on the last day — the 
final judgment — the sentence pronounced, and ex- 
ecuted — the heavens passing away — the elements 
melting — the earth burnt up — the perfections of 
the Deity gradually and progressively unfolded, 
and the everlasting song, " Salvation to him that 
sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb!" Such 
is the Bible as an index of thought and intelli- 
gence. Has it not in this respect a legitimate 
claim to superiority ? 

Permit me also to enquire, Is there not evi- 
dence THAT THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORK OF MAN ? 

Whence is this intellectual superiority ? Whence 
is it that the herdsmen, and fishermen, and tent- 
makers of Judea have given a book to the world 
which is so superior to all the productions of hu- 
man genius and learning, so undivided and unique 
in its object, and in its design so unutterably grand 
and elevated ? What presiding genius, what mas- 
ter-mind was it, that controlled and propelled them 
at every step ? If the greatness of the cause may 
be ascertained from the greatness of the effect, is 
not this book, as a mere intellectual effort, inex- 
plicable upon any other supposition, than that it 
is of divine original? Does not the light that 
emanates from these pages proceed from the great 
Fountain and eternal source of knowledge ? Is it 
not the production of the Infinite Pvlind ? Is it 
not impossible that it should have been the result 
of human invention ? Is it not utterly beyond tho 



CONCLUSION. 395 

grasp of man ? Has it not an elevation of thought, 
a vigour, an extent, a greatness of conception 
which make the proudest efforts of human genius 
melt away like an untimely birth, and which bears 
on the face of it the intelligence and signature of 
heaven ? 

Who is the author of a book all whose aims and 
tendencies are so full of kindness ? Does the 
benevolence of the Bible look like the work of 
man ? It was the remark of the celebrated 
Madam De Stael, that she desired no other evi- 
dence of the truth of Christianity, than the Lord's 
Prayer. It is indeed the archetype of all appro- 
priate supplication. And this prayer is but an 
epitome of the benevolent spirit that breathes 
throughout the New Testament. In no instance 
does the Bible exert an influence which a benevo- 
lent spirit would desire to repress. And does not 
this form a strong presumption in favour of its di- 
vine original ? Can a work which bears so promi- 
nently the marks of kindness and mercy, be ra- 
tionally attributed to human artifice and pious 
fraud ? When the captious and foolish Pharisees 
saw the Saviour heal the demoniac, they prepos- 
terously said, "This fellow doth cast out devils 
by Bec^lzebub, the Prin(M^ of devils. But Josus 
knew their thoughts, and said unto them, livery 
kingdom dividend against itself is brought to de- 
struction; and every city, or house divided against 
its(*lf shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, 
he is divided a<^ainst himself/'' 'Vi) suppose lliat 



396 CONCLUSION. 

such a book were a fabrication, were to suppose 
that falsehood is the fruit of goodness, and that 
the kingdom of darkness is divided against itself. 
The design to impose such a volume upon the 
world could originate from no other than the worst 
forms of human wickedness. And who can be- 
lieve that a book of such a benevolent character 
had such an origin ? The Bible professes to be a 
teacher sent from God. As God is benevolent 
and holy in his nature, every thing that proceeds 
from him must be benevolent and holy in its 
tendency, and produce holiness and happiness as 
its fruits. And does not the benevolent tendency 
of this book sustain its claims to this divine origin? 
Can its benevolent character be accounted for, 
without allowing its claims to divine inspiration ? 
It is true that " we allow great excellence to what 
is contained in many books which no one supposes 
to be inspired ;" but is not the excellence of their 
precepts and doctrines derived from the Bible 5 
and where is there a book of unalloyed^ unmiti' 
gled excellence except this, and such as owe their 
excellencies to this origin ? Does not the Bible 
do honour to a divine Author ? Is it not destined 
to accomplish all the purposes which an infinitely 
benevolent mind desires to accomplish ? 

And whence is its unwersal adaptation to the 
character and condition of our race, except from 
Him who knew how to reveal a system of truth 
and grace fitted to universal humanity ? There 
have been here and there men who were so much 



CONCLUSION. 3OT 

I 

in advance of the age in which they Uved, that 
they have impressed their own individual charac- 
ter upon large portions of human society around 
them, and upon their own nation, and perhaps, to 
some extent, upon the existing generation ; though 
this last hypothesis may be seriously called in ques- 
tion. But where is the man whose mighty mind 
has diffused its vivifying rays, not over one country 
and nation, and generation of men, but whose 
thoughts and principles, whose strong and ardent 
affections and moral impulses have the same adapta- 
tion to man in whatever quarter of the world and 
in whatever age of time he is found ? The work 
of man is a partial, relative, and limited work. 
But it is God alone that can perform a work, and 
reveal a religion that is equally adapted to every 
age, and place, and creature of this vast creation. 
If there is a religion revealed from heaven, it must 
possess the characteristics of universality and per- 
petuity. God alone can speak to the race. His 
love alone, overlooking all the peculiarities of 
time, circumstance, condition, and character, em- 
braces the race, and makes its appeals to the 
heart of man wherever he is found. This is done 
by the religion of the Bible ; and wherever such a 
religion is found, it comes from God. The re- 
hgion of nature, so far as it goes, is for this reason 
from him ; and the religion of the Bible, extend- 
ing so far beyond the religion of nature, is, for the 
same reason, from the same divine source. Is 
there not a peculiarity in the Bible, in all these 
34 



CONCLUSIOPT. 

respects, which distinguishes it as the work of 
God? 

Man can perform only the work of man. What- 
ever God does " exhibits such clear traces of the 
divine workmanship, as will distinguish it, at once, 
from the works of man. No one, when he surveys 
a ship, or a steam engine, or a watch — the fairest 
specimens perhaps of human ingenuity, is in any 
danger of attributing either of them to the handy- 
work of his Maker. But if we look at the works 
of creation 5 we cannot find a star in the firma- 
ment, nor a cloud in the sky, nor an animal, or ve- 
getable, or mineral on the earth, nor atom in the 
sunbeams which has not written on it in letters of 
light. The hand that made me is divine. The 
same is true of the works of Providence. No man 
can trace the path of a planet, or the progress of 
an empire, or the life of man, or the fall of a spar- 
row, or the drop of a leaf, without discovering that 
all-wise hand which regulates their motions. Surely 
then, when God undertakes to reveal his thoughts 
to men, he can stamp on the revelation similar 
evidence that it is the work of the Divine mind."* 
Does not the Bible carry with it a sort of intuitive 
evidence that it is the work of God ? It has not 
been the object of these lectures to discuss the 
question of the divine origin of the Scriptures; 



* S. E. I>wight*8 sermon at the installation of Rev. E. Jen. 
kins. 



CONCLUSION. 399 

and yet, may I not be allowed to ask, whether 
they do not furnish evidence of their divine origin 
which may not be hastily set aside ? Honest in- 
quirers after the truth we respect ; but we care 
little for the cavils of men who " contend against 
their Maker." We may say to them all, '^ Who 
art thou that repliest against God ?" It is no mat- 
ter of surprise that so much patient and critical in- 
vestigation has been bestowed on this great sub- 
ject. No question in the whole circle of the sci- 
ences has received half the attention that has been 
devoted to this. Every inch of ground has been 
by turns defended and disputed ; and had there 
been a weak spot in the defence, it had long since 
been discovered and assailed. This sacred Book 
has passed the ordeal of the severest examination; 
and it is no assumption to say, that its claims have 
been established. Had it been possible, wicked 
and corrupt men had long ago swept it from the 
earth. Men have been forbidden to read it 5 more 
than once has it been publicly burnt by the com- 
mon hangman ; emperors and councils have been 
leagued against it ; popes and priests have con- 
spired to corrupt and destroy it ; but the more it 
has been opposed, the better has it been known 
and loved. Other things grow old, and time de- 
tracts from their vigor, but the Bible is always new 
and always young. A tithe of the evidence, in re- 
lation to any other matter, which has been adduced 
in favour of the divine origin of the Scriptures, 
would have silenced and satisfied the world. If 



4I0O CONCLUSION. 

there are those who are sceptical and incredulous, 
and will not be convinced by the evidence which 
bas so often been adduced in its favour, we doubt 
fiiuch whether evidence ever convinces them. The 
atrong hold of infidelity is more often found in the 
heart than in the intellect. It has its throne in the 
corrupted affections. It finds its aliment in the 
love of sin. Men are not willing to believe the 
Bible is true because it requires with such infinite 
authority, and on such fearful penalties, a holy life. 
Pride, luxury, ambition, voluptuousness, and secret 
sin are the enemies of the Bible. There is no 
©pinion more erroneous than that infidelity is 
founded on an apprehended deficiency of the evi- 
dence which supports a divine revelation. " If 
they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither 
would they be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead." Scepticism has other sources than w^ant of 
Ught. " Light is come into the world, and men 
have loved darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds are evil." Those who most resemble God 
are most likely to believe him. " If any man will 
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
U be of God." I will conclude by adding — 

! Is NOT THE BiBLE WORTHY YOUR SERIOUS AND 

SOLEMN ATTENTION. ? The real merit of objects 
is not always discerned on our first acquaintance 
with them. The great design throughout these 
lectures has been to honour the word of God. 
Most sincerely do I wish they were a tribute more 
worthy of the great Book I have desired to exalt* 



CONCLUSION. 401 

To mc it has seemed that the Bible is not appre- 
ciated. How can it be when it is so little known? 
A familiar acquaintance with the sacred volume is 
the only way of ascertaining its true excellence. 
The Abbe Winkleman, perhaps the most classical 
writer upon the Fine Arts, after descanting with 
great zeal upon the perfection of sculpture as ex- 
hibited in the Apollo Belvidere^ says to young ar- 
tists, " Go and study it ; and if you see no great 
beauty in it to captivate you, go again. And if 
you still discover none, go again and again. Go 
until you feel it ^ for be assured it is there." So 
say we of the Bible. You may not, — nay, you 
cannot discover its worth at a sinorle readinor. 
Though its great truths are perfectly plain and 
easy to be understood, it is not to be supposed that 
it requires no dihgent mental exertion to compre- 
hend so vast a book. It is, as we have already 
seen, one of its great excellencies, that it is essen- 
tial to the clear discovery and highest enjoyment 
of its varied instructions that it puts in requisition 
the highest intellectual and moral powers of the 
human mind. It has excellencies, which, the more 
they are discovered, will the more lead you to say 
with one who was no indolent, or passive reader 
of its pages, " Open thou mine eyes, that I may 
behold wonderful things out of thy law!" All the 
treasures of this inexhaustible mine are not found 
upon its surface. After all that critics and theolo- 
gians have explored, rich jewels will yet be found 
far below the ground. " Search the Scriptures,'' 
34* 



402 CONCLUSION. 

Search them daily. Search them not from cu- 
riosity merely, though curiosity and learning are 
amply remunerated by the search ; but from a deep 
and personal interest in their instructions. En- 
deavour to extract from them the sense they were 
intended to convey. And that you may do this, 
go to them with a heart and mind deeply imbued 
with their spirit. It is true they require thought 
and intellect ; but it is not always when mere intel- 
lect \s most exercised and acute, that divine truth 
discloses itself to the mind most clearly, or in its 
most lovely forms. I have known men who were 
profound critics and acute controversialists ^ whose 
inquiries indicated an enlarged and comprehensive 
acquaintance with the sacred volume 5 who em- 
ployed all their energy and resources in becoming 
masters of that varied learning which might shed 
light upon this ancient book ; but who were never 
" mighty in the Scriptures,'' because they had not 
drank into its spirit, and who instead of unlocking 
this rich treasury, took away the key of knowledge. 
The Bible is not more a revelation of the mind, 
than of the heart of the Deity. It has a soul; 
and it is the soul only that can catch its heavenly 
teachings. When you go to this book of God, let 
it be not so much to gratify a restive intellect, as 
to find spiritual ahment 5 not so much to decipher 
the Urim and Thummim, as to find the heavenly 
manna. There are difficulties, nay, there are mys 
teries in the Bible ; and so there are mysteries in 
every star and every grain of sand. But if it 



CONCLUSION. 403 

makes you holy and fits you for heaven, you may 
leave it to its enemies to reproach it on account of 
its mysteries. 

Nor is it enough to understand the Scriptures. 
They must be loved and obeyed. Search them, 
sincerely desirous not only to know^, but to do the 
will of their Author. Though they may be wound- 
ing to your pride, receive them with all readiness 
of mind. Though there may be a sensible coHi- 
sion, a severe conflict, between the truth of God 
and the unhumbled heart 5 yet must the truth of 
God be beUeved and loved. It is no impossible 
thing for your convictions to correspond with the 
truths of the Bible, while your affections and dis- 
positions have no such correspondence. The word 
of God has comprehensive claims. Its great Au- 
thor requires every man to receive it on his own 
divine testimony. True Christianity is heartfelt 
obedience to the truth of God. "He that believ- 
eth not God, hath made him a liar, because he be- 
lieveth not the record which God hath given con- 
cerning his Son.'" O, it were a grief of heart, my 
young friends, to live and die the enemy of this 
Bible and this Saviour. '^ Hold fast that thou 
hast, let no man take thy crown !" 

I have now concluded tiiis series of lectures. In 
bringing them to a close, I cannot but express my 
devout gratitude to Almighty God for the favour 
with which his providence has attended them. 
Most unfeignedly also do I express my acknow- 
ledgements to this audience for the attentive car 



n . ^:) 



404 CONCLUSION. 



with which they have Hstened to these exercises* 
My humble prayer is, that in that Great Day which 
shall disclose the results of our privileges and ob- 
ligations, both the hearers and the speaker may 
see that they have had some influence in securing 
a welcome entrance of the word of life into your 
hearts and his own. "Now the God of peace, 
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, 
that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the 
blood of the everlasting covenant, make you per- 
fect in every good work to do his will, working in 
you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through 
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever, 
amen ! 



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